This page includes materials on the stationing of US forces in ROK,NMD, ROK reaction to US DPRK policy, etc. but does not attempt to go into wider US-ROK relations.
Nuclear reactors issue, KEDO, IAEA, etc. are currently on the nuclear programme page

2005

• December
• November
• October
• September
• August
• July
• June
• May
• April
• March
• February
• January

• NK-US relations 2004
• NK-US relations 2003
• NK-US relations 2002
• NK-US relations 2001
• NK-US relations 2000

• Seoul Urges US, NK, China to Address Sanctions
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The United States, North Korea and China are the directly involved parties in Pyongyang's alleged counterfeiting of U.S. dollars, as the issue came to the fore through a bank in the Chinese territory, Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said on Wednesday.
  He, however, said that South Korea also has a ``serious'' concern as it is affecting the resumption of the six-party talks. In September, the U.S. Treasury Department designated Banko Delta Asia in Macao as a primary money-laundering concern under Section 311 of the USA Patriot Act. The department described the bank as a ``pawn'' of Pyongyang's front companies used for distributing bogus $100 bills, known as ``supernotes.''
  ``If the allegation is true, we can't tolerate it either,'' Song, Seoul's top envoy to the six-party talks, said at a seminar hosted by the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul. ``Our stance is to solve it, following international norms.''
  He said that Seoul is currently analyzing relevant information and all the involved countries are conducting ``silent'' contacts to find a solution. [Evidence] [Friction]
• ROK-US Strategic Talks Due in Mid-January
  SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States will hold minister-level "strategic talks" in Washington D.C. in mid-January featuring U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her South Korean counterpart Ban Ki-moon, an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Tuesday. The two countries will soon announce an official schedule for the talks, provisionally named the "strategic consultation for alliance and partnership," the official said on condition of anonymity.
• Allies to Form Task Force for Command Transfer
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter 7 December 2005
  South Korea and the United States have agreed to operate task forces dealing with the transfer of wartime command to Seoul from February next year, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday. In talks, dubbed the Security Policy Initiative (SPI), in Seoul, the two sides agreed to discuss details on Seoul's bid to ``exercise unilateral authority'' to control its armed forces during wartime in the defense ministers' talks next year.
  ``The timetable on the issue will not be presented in a short period as it is affected by various factors, such as the establishment of a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula and the status change of the United States Forces Korea (USFK),'' the deputy minister said. Seoul has been seeking to take the wartime command back from the U.S. for 10 years, as part of its efforts to build a ``cooperative self-reliant'' defense force. Seoul regained the authority to control its military during peacetime in 1994, but wartime control has remained in the Combined Forces Command (CFC), which is led by a U.S. four-star general, since the 1950-53 Korean War. The war ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The allies also consulted on ways to increase South Korean military's role in combined Korea-U.S. ground mission here, ministry officials said. Ahn's delegation asked for an increase about 50 Korean commanders in the Ground Component Command (GCC), which is currently headed by a Korean general but whose command posts are equally held by both sides. Other agenda items on the table were the realignment of U.S. forces in South Korea and the transfer of security missions of the USFK to the South Korean military. Last September, South Korea took over six missions, including one to command and control a counter-fire mission against long-range artillery attacks by North Korea, from the U.S. in accordance with a 2003 agreement. South Korea plans to take over four other missions by the end of next year. [Sovereignty] [US military dominance]
• Korea, US to Discuss Command Transfer
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter 1 December 2005
  South Korea and the United States will begin full-fledged discussions on Seoul's bid to regain wartime operational control of its armed forces from its half-century-old ally in defense talks on Dec. 6-7 in Seoul, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.
• 'No ROK-US Discord Over NK Counterfeiting'
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter
  Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Tuesday that South Korea shares the international community's ``serious concern'' about North Korea's alleged counterfeiting of U.S. dollars. Seoul and Washington have no discord on the matter, both agreeing counterfeiting is an intolerable illegal activity and are actively sharing information to verify the issue, Chung said during a question-and-answer session held at Seoul Foreign Correspondents' Club in central Seoul. Chung said that the issue must be dealt with outside the framework of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs, despite the North's repeated claims that such allegations made by the United States, which it views as part of the U.S. ``hostile policy,'' stands in the way of the resumption of the nuclear talks. ``During the South-North ministerial talks, we delivered our position that if such illegal activities (as counterfeiting) are truly being pursued, it cannot be tolerated in the international community and that it should be stopped immediately,'' Chung said. During the latest round of inter-Korean ministerial talks held Dec. 13-16 on the southern resort island of Cheju, the South stressed to the North that the counterfeiting or U.S. financial sanctions against the North are bilateral issues to be resolved between Washington and Pyongyang, he said.
  ``Toward the normalization of the United States-North Korea ties, there are so-called six pending issues including missiles and human rights besides the counterfeiting and drug-trafficking,'' the minister said. ``Our government has maintained that such bilateral issues should be separated from the six-nation talks, as it would be difficult to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula when the six-nation talks stumble every time such issues surface,'' he said. [Evidence] [Friction] [Bilateralism]
• Roh Sends Greetings to S. Korean Troops in Iraq, Kuwait
  SEOUL (Yonhap) -- President Roh Moo-hyun has sent holiday greetings to his country's troops stationed in Kuwait and Iraq. [Collusion]
• North Korea - The Enigma Variation
  Wednesday, 30 November, 8 p.m. ET, on MHZ NETWORKS
  Kathryn Weathersby and James Goodby discuss N. Korea on Dialogue. North Korea flirts dangerously with the status of outcast among nations. The mercurial moods of Kim Jon Il and the frequent reversals in foreign policy positions suggest a nation devoid of a strong central purpose. But the actions of the North Koreans are rooted in perceptions of betrayal sewn deep into their collective past. Understanding their fear of friend and foe alike is essential to crafting a successful diplomatic strategy.
• US Envoy Urges NK to Stop Bill Forgeries
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter
  The United States has ``forensic'' evidence that the counterfeited U.S. dollars circulated in South Korea last year was from North Korea, U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Alexander Vershbow said Friday.
  The top U.S. envoy also urged Pyongyang to take verifiable and immediate actions to stop its alleged production of forged U.S. bills. But he stressed that Washington is committed to peacefully resolving the stalemate over the North's nuclear weapons program.
  Vershbow said that U.S. authorities were able to believe the counterfeit $100 notes, dubbed ``supernotes,'' were from North Korea through information and forensic proof, adding the U.S. plans to share the information with South Korea.
  In October last year, the National Police Agency in Seoul rounded up a crime ring that produced fake 280 U.S. bills valued at around 30 million won ($29,000). At that time, police secured some statements from suspects that the ring was operating in Beijing, but failed to identify the home place of the criminals. [Evidence] [Friction] [Counterfeiting]
• Pyongtaek Designated Global City
  By Lee Hyo-sik Staff Reporter The government has decided to create an international business and commercial city in Pyongtaek, Kyonggi Province, to compensate residents there for hosting the headquarters of the United States Forces Korea (USFK). The USFK is scheduled to complete relocating its troops at Yongsan garrison and the 2nd Infantry Division stationed in north of Seoul to the Pyongtaek region by 2008. [In denial]
• Eyelid Surgery Began to Try to Impress GIs: CNN
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) _ The popular plastic surgery among Asian women to make their eyes look bigger started in Korea among those who wanted to attract American soldiers, a CNN report claimed Wednesday. A relatively simple 30-minute surgical procedure to create what is called ``double'' eyelids in Asia was introduced in Korea ``in the 1950s after the Korean War when women wanted to look more Caucasian to impress American GIs,'' the report said. [Pro-Americanism]
• Seoul Asks US to Disclose More on NK's Illicit Acts
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- South Korea has asked the United States to release more information on North Korea's counterfeiting to determine the facts of the matter, a diplomatic source here said Wednesday. The request comes as the U.S. and North Korea clash over accusations of illicit financial activities by Pyongyang including money laundering, counterfeiting of U.S. currency and smuggling of illegal goods. Pyongyang is accused of producing and floating fake U.S. dollars throughout the world. In September, the U.S. Treasury Department forbade American banks from dealing with Banco Delta Asia, saying the Macau-based bank was laundering money for North Korea and abetting Pyongyang's illicit conduct including circulation of counterfeit dollars. The following month, Sean Garland, senior member of an Irish Republican Army splinter group, was indicted by the U.S. on charges of conspiring with North Korea to float millions of dollars in fake U.S. currency. But details surrounding these incidents have been sparse. "We think there should be more information disclosed about the bogus $100 bills North Korea is believed to have circulated," the source said. Washington has said these actions are law enforcement issues and separate from those addressed at six-party nuclear negotiations, but North Korea has strongly protested the Treasury Department's moves and threatened to stay away from the nuclear talks. The department briefed foreign diplomats, including those from South Korea, the European Union, Australia and Singapore, on Friday about North Korea's illicit activities. 12-22-2005 20: [Evidence] [Friction] [Counterfeiting] [Camouflage]
• US Has No Doubts about NK Counterfeiting Dollars: Hill
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- Foreign diplomats briefed last week have accepted evidence that North Korea is counterfeiting U.S.dollars, a senior U.S. State Department official said Tuesday. "I saw them the other day," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said about fake $100 notes. "My own suggestion is, if someone gives you a $100 note, look at it very carefully," said Hill, talking to South Korean reporters. [Counterfeiting] [Evidence] [Arrogance]
• Officials fret over Seoul counterfeit stance
  December 23, 2005 ? While Seoul is sticking to its official line that there is no conclusive evidence of North Korean counterfeiting, some officials here worry that the government's fear of stirring up the North and perhaps jeopardizing the six-party nuclear talks has made its position with Washington untenable. A South Korean intelligence official told the JoongAng Daily yesterday that the North's counterfeiting activities have been monitored since the early 1990s and that evidence gathered during that period is enough to give credibility to Washington's claim that Pyongyang has manufactured forged U.S. dollar bills. "With current government policies in place that want to keep the North's regime afloat, the government wants to delay acting on the issue as long as possible," the official said. "North Korean counterfeiting activities are nothing new, and they are a known lifeline for the North." Most officials here have been dodging questions and repeating that the administration wants more decisive evidence. "For us, there is the big picture to be considered. We have never said that we will just sit down and do nothing if there are illegal activities," said one senior government official. In a bid to counter the counterfeiting and sales of contraband goods, Washington has slapped sanctions on financial institutions and North Korean companies suspected of participating in such dealings. They most recently asserted those claims to diplomats, including those from Seoul, at a briefing last week on the counterfeit $100 "supernotes." The U.S. ambassador to Korea, Alexander Vershbow, has cited counterfeiting as one of the elements of his characterization of Pyongyang ass a "criminal regime." And a former official at the U.S. State Department, David Asher, told the JoongAng Ilbo that in addition to counterfeiting and drug trafficking, the North also distributes about $200 million per year of falsely labeled cigarettes. by Brian Lee [Friction] [Evidence] [Collusion]
• Foreign Minister Dodges US Rebuff
  Ban Ki-moon, minister of foreign affairs and trade, Wednesday tried to dodge criticism by a top U.S. lawmaker who accused Seoul of taking an apologetic attitude toward communist North Korea. The comments came after Henry Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, sent a letter to the top U.S. envoy in Seoul Tuesday supporting his stern stance on North Korea. Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow dubbed North Korea a "criminal regime," accusing it of involvement in large-scale counterfeiting and drug-trafficking. At the time, Ban expressed regret, saying that countries participating in the six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear programs should refrain from "using expressions unfavorable to dialogue partners." But in the letter, Hyde applauded the U.S. ambassador for his straight-forward remarks and appeared to criticize Seoul for siding with the North. "Those who would make apologies for such a regime are no friends of America or her people," Hyde said in the letter. [Friction] [Solipsism] [Vituperation]
• Unification Chief to Meet US Officials
  Unification Minister Chung Dong-young will meet top U.S. officials including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week during a visit to Washington aimed at kick-starting the North Korean nuclear negotiations, Seoul officials confirmed Tuesday. Unification Ministry officials said Chung has arranged to meet Rice as well as U.S. presidential security advisor Stephen Hadley, but the timing for the consultations has not been fixed.
• Bulletin of the Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People
  December 2005 Sword of Peace
  Mankind desires peace, but peace on this planet is always threatened and trampled by the imperialist forces that live on aggression and intervention. How is peace to be ensured?
  Iraq's Lesson It would not be easy to stand against the imperialist forces with great military and economic potentials, especially the United States, the so-called Superpower in the world. For this reason, some people seek to maintain peace by making concession to the imperialist. What will be the result of such concession is clear from the case of Iraq. [Imperialism] [Environment]
• `Roh Met With US Intelligence Chief'
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte secretly visited Seoul early this month to pay a courtesy call to President Roh Moo-hyun and discuss ways to cooperate with South Korea's anti-espionage agency, a diplomatic source said Monday. Roh met the U.S. spymaster at Chong Wa Dae before he began a nine-day trip to Malaysia and the Philippines on Dec. 8. During his stay in Malaysia, he attended the ASEAN+3 Summit and East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur. ASEAN stands for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Negroponte is chief of a new body coordinating a total of 15 spy agencies of the United States, such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The Senate confirmed Negroponte's appointment as the first director of the body last April. In their 30-minute meeting, Roh and Negroponte exchanged views on regional and international issues, including North Korea's nuclear programs and the situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula, as well as the South Korea-U.S. alliance, the source said.
• Pan-Korean Nationalism, Anti-Great Power-ism and U.S.-South Korean Relations
  By Jiyul Kim The overwhelming attention accorded the North Korean nuclear issue seems to have precluded a close examination of the U.S. - South Korean relationship as it enters a profound transitional period. [1] Current internal trends and dynamics in South Korean politics will require a fundamental reassessment of that relation. A major change in the character of the alliance, especially its military dimensions, is in the offing. However, such a change need not be seen as detrimental to the U.S.
  Colonel Jiyul Kim is the Director of Asian Studies at the U.S. Army War College. This article does not represent the views and policies of the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Army. He wrote this article for Japan Focus. Posted December 13, 2005. [Anti-Americanism] [US-SK relations]
• 'Seoul Isolated by Passive Stance on NK Rights Abuse'
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea's low-profile approach to the human rights problems in North Korea is making the country ``increasingly marginal'' over North Korean issues, including the nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang, a U.S. human rights activist said. Michael Horowitz, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, urged the Seoul government to take aggressive steps to improve the North's systematic human rights violations, stressing the need to push China on its stance on North Korean refugees. [Camouflage][Regime change][Friction] [Neo-cons]
• Vershbow Stands Firm Over NK Counterfeiting
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Washington's top envoy to Seoul reconfirmed Friday that the U.S. administration will not negotiate with North Korea over its financial sanctions on the Pyongyang regime. Alexander Vershbow, however, expressed regret over a ``lively debate'' that took place in South Korea due to his calling of North Korea a ``criminal regime.'' ``We don't negotiate over the enforcement of our law,'' Vershbow told South Korean reporters at his residence in central Seoul. ``But we are prepared to inform the North Koreans as to how our law operates.''
  In a related development, the U.S. State Department was scheduled to host a briefing session for foreign diplomats in Washington on Friday over North Korea's illicit activities, such as money laundering. A councilor-level South Korean official will attend it, but no North Korean officials will take part in the session, diplomatic sources in Seoul said. As for evidence of Pyongyang's involvement in financial illegalities, Vershbow mentioned the recent arrest of Sean Garland, head of the communist Workers Party of Ireland, who provided the first confirmation of North Korea's links to so-called supernote. [Evidence] [Solipsism]
• Chung goes to Washington to discuss N.K.
  Unification Minister Chung Dong-young left for the United States yesterday to meet government officials and experts to discuss pending North Korea issues, particularly the nuclear standoff. Chung will visit Washington and Los Angeles for six days to promote the recently blossoming inter-Korean relations and to exchange views on how to tackle the nuclear standoff. This trip is considered to be the last international event Chung will make before leaving the Cabinet to return to the ruling Uri Party.
  On the second day of his visit to Washington, Chung is scheduled to hold a news conference at the National Press Club to brief some hundred international press on various inter-Korean economic cooperation towards co-prosperity under the title "peace economy."
• U.S. envoy urged to refrain from hostile remarks on N.K.
  National Assembley speaker expresses regret
  National Assembly Speaker Kim One-ki expressed regret yesterday toward recent hostile remarks about North Korea made by U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow. Vershbow labeled the North a "criminal regime" last week, and said it was the first government to take part in counterfeiting money since Adolf Hitler's Germany. "It is undesirable for an ambassador to make remarks that do not help inter-Korean peace which is a life or death matter to us," said Kim in an interview with a radio program. "Regrettably, the ambassador seems to be going too far," he said. Kim is a member of the ruling Uri Party. [Friction] Camouflage] [Vituperation] [Six Party Talks]
• Speaker Slams US Envoy for Anti-NK Remarks
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter A group of Christian civic activists holds a rally denouncing U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow for making what they call provocative remarks against North Korea in Kwanghwamun, central Seoul, Thursday. /Korea Times U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow's recent labeling of North Korea as a ``criminal regime'' went beyond the bounds, National Assembly Speaker Kim Won-ki said on Thursday. It is the second remark to come from parliament in a week, criticizing the American envoy to Seoul for his ``provocative'' definition of the Pyongyang regime. On Tuesday, Rep. Kim Won-wung of the ruling Uri Party warned that he would introduce a resolution, demanding Washington recall Vershbow. ``It is regrettable that Ambassador Vershbow's statements went too far,'' the speaker said during an interview with a KBS radio program. ``His remarks were not appropriate for an ambassador to South Korea, which is endeavoring to stabilize peace on the Korean Peninsula.'' [Friction] [Camouflage] [Regime change]
• U.S. Banks Are Warned on North Korea
  By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer Wed Dec 14, 9:44 AM ET
  WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has issued a warning to U.S. banks that North Korea may try to use them to carry out illicit activities.
  The advisory from the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network represents the latest effort by the United States to financially clamp down on North Korea. "U.S. financial institutions should take reasonable steps to guard against the abuse of their financial services by North Korea, which may be seeking to establish new or exploit existing account relationships for the purpose of conducting illicit activities," according to the advisory, which was dated Tuesday. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCen, is responsible for making sure the U.S. financial system is not vulnerable to terrorist financiers, drug lords, money launderers and others engaged in financial crimes. [Sanctions] [Camouflage][ Counterfeiting]
• Lawmakers Urges US Envoy to Be More Cautious on NK
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ A South Korean ruling party lawmaker said Tuesday he would submit a resolution to urge the government to ask the U.S. to recall its ambassador to Seoul if the envoy continues to take a hard-line stance against North Korea. Rep. Kim Wong-wung of the Uri Party called for Alexander Vershbow to be cautious in choosing words to describe North Korea. The warning came after Washington's top envoy here openly labeled North Korea a " criminal regime" last week, citing Pyongyang's alleged involvement in the export of dangerous technologies, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and the counterfeiting of U.S. money. The envoy ruled out the possibility of negotiations between his country and the communist state over Washington's recent financial sanctions. On Monday, Vershbow also called for Seoul to link the pace of inter-Korean economic cooperation with the progress of the six-way talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear weapons program.
  Some progressive figures say his criticism of North Korea went too far at a time when multilateral efforts to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula are at crucial juncture. "Ambassador Vershbow's remarks are due to either his lack of specialization on the Korean Peninsula or intention to damage peace on the peninsula," Rep. Kim said in a radio talk show. Vershbow should bear in mind that South Korea will not regard as an ally any country standing in the way of the peninsula's peace, he added. [Friction] [Camouflage] [Six Party Talks]
• US Focuses on Asia Situation for Arms Sales: Report
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The Asia-Pacific region is probably the next most lucrative defense market for the United States and thus the focus of major policy decisions, weekly Defense News reported Monday. Australia, China, India and Japan are the big players, as well as smaller nations including South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Taiwan, the paper said. Between 1997 and 2004, India led the developing world as the largest arms buyer with deals worth $15.7 billion, with China close behind at $15.3 billion. [China confrontation]
• Vershbow says Washington sees North Korea as military threat
  Top U.S. envoy here said his country could not avoid the fact that North Korea is a "military threat," hurling further strong invectives at the communist state that is threatening to boycott the six-party talks on its nuclear ambitions. "Despite our best efforts to engage with North Korea, and despite our best intentions, we cannot turn our faces away from the fact that North Korea remains a military threat, with over million troops, claims to possess nuclear weapons, and has near-total control of its own people," Alexander Vershbow said at a forum hosted by the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy. "It remains to be seen whether North Korea is truly prepared to eliminate its nuclear programs, and to do so in a prompt and verifiable manner. If they are, as President Bush and President Roh stated in Gyeongju, we are prepared to move forward on other aspects of the September 19 joint statement, including discussions for a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula," the ambassador said. [Threat] [Sequencing]
• No Red Carpet for NK Rights Envoy
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter An international conference on North Korea's human rights finished its three-day schedule Saturday with a candle-light rally in Seoul. One of the high-profile visitors to Seoul was Jay Lefkowitz, who was appointed by Washington early this year as a special envoy to take a look at Pyongyang's humanitarian abuses. [Friction] [Camouflage]
• NK Denies US Charges of Criminal Activities
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter North Korea flatly denied the United States' allegations of state-level criminal activities such as counterfeiting or illegal trade Saturday, blaming the U.S. for possible suspension of the six-party talks to deal with its nuclear programs. The North's Foreign Ministry spokesman said in an interview with the (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the official mouthpiece of the regime, that the illegal activities are ``beyond imagination'' of the country, and insisted such allegations only proved the U.S. ``mastery of fakery.'' ``We have thoroughly reviewed the materials presented by the U.S. on our so-called illegal activities,'' the spokesman said. ``The results tell us that they are pure fabrications.''
• U.S. aide asks Seoul to press rights in North
  Uri Party officials react angrily to comments urging more active role December 10, 2005 ? A visiting U.S. envoy yesterday made a blunt call to the South Korean government to stop shirking its duty to challenge the North Korean regime's human rights abuses. He noted repeatedly that Washington and Seoul have differences in their tactical approaches to promoting human rights in the reclusive communist state. Jay Lefkowitz, the U.S. envoy for human rights in North Korea, said the international community has been working on a series of approaches to improve the rights situation in North Korea. At a hastily called news conference yesterday afternoon, he urged Seoul "to participate and be a little more vocal." He added, "There is never an inappropriate time to talk about human rights."
• US Seeks to Pressure Pyongyang
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter Jay Lefkowitz A U.S. envoy for North Korean human rights Friday dismissed South Korean concerns that speaking out on humanitarian abuses by the Pyongyang regime will undermine peace on the Korean peninsula. Jay Lefkowitz, who was appointed by Washington earlier this year to monitor rights conditions in the communist North, made the comments during the Seoul Summit, a high-profile conference organized by U.S. pro-democracy group Freedom House. [Camouflage] [Friction]
• Allies at Odds Over N. Korean Human Rights
  A widening rift between Seoul and Washington over how to approach North Korea's human rights abuses was highlighted yesterday by U.S. officials pressing South Korea to adopt a tougher line against the communist country. At a Washington-funded conference in Seoul, U.S. special envoy Jay Lefkowitz called on South Korea and the international community to work together on calling attention to human suffering in North Korea. But in a separate event celebrating the fifth anniversary of former President Kim Dae-jung's Nobel Peace Prize, the creator of South Korea's "sunshine" policy toward the North said gradual reconciliation, not coercion, is the only way to resolve the human rights problem. [Friction] [Camouflage]
• N. Korea Slams U.S. Envoy Over Comments
  By BO-MI LIM The Associated Press Saturday, December 10, 2005; 7:36 PM
  SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea denounced the new U.S. ambassador to South Korea for calling the communist nation a "criminal regime," saying Saturday his remark was tantamount to a declaration of war. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow made the comment Tuesday, citing alleged illicit activities by North Korea like money laundering and counterfeiting.
  Jay Lefkowitz, the U.S. envoy for human rights in North Korea answers reporters question during a U.S.-supported international conference for North Korea's human rights in Seoul, Friday, Dec. 9, 2005. Lefkowotz argued Friday that the lack of basic liberties in the communist nation was an international issue and said the world should press Pyongyang to reform. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) (Lee Jin-man - AP) North Korea called the statement "a sort of provocative declaration of a war" and threatened to "mercilessly retaliate against it," the official Korean Central News Agency quoted an unidentified spokesman for the North's committee on peaceful reunification as saying. [Camouflage]
• North Korea human rights forum opens amid protests
  An international forum on North Korea's human rights kicked off in Seoul yesterday, despite some protests and the government's deliberate detachment. The forum, named "Seoul Summit: Promoting Human Rights in North Korea," will be held until tomorrow with some 700 officials attending. Among the participants are Jay Lefkowitz, the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights, U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow and North Korean defector Hwang Jang-yop, former secretary of the North Korean Workers Party. The South Korean government declined to take part in the event, but decided to send an official to observe the seminars. The government has been openly cautious in addressing North Korea's human rights, citing the delicate inter-Korean relations and the ongoing nuclear negotiations.
  While the conference commenced with a welcoming dinner at Shilla Hotel in downtown Seoul, about 20 progressive civic and religious groups denounced the forum in an adjacent part of the city, raising questions over the "hidden political motives" of the forum. The groups claimed in a news conference that it was "yet another violation to human rights to push for a collapse of one's regime citing human rights improvement." [Friction] [Camouflage] [Human rights] [Regime change] [Strategic incoherence]
• U.S., Korea set talks on wartime command
  December 08, 2005 ? The Defense Ministry said yesterday that Seoul and Washington will begin talks next year on Korea's wartime control of its military. Under existing arrangements, Korea's military would fight a war under the U.S. general who heads the Combined Forces Command here. The agreement came at defense consultations here this week; the talks will begin in February. President Roh Moo-hyun, who has advocated more military independence from the United States, has complained publicly about those wartime command arrangements. The two nations have already agreed that the Korean military will take over several defense missions that are now U.S. responsibilities. Seoul is also planning a major shakeup of its forces, which would result in a much smaller Army but one equipped with more advanced firepower. [US military dominance] [Sovereignty]
• Meeting here highlights human rights in North
  December 08, 2005 ? Dozens of international human rights groups will open a conference here today to discuss the North Korean regime's human rights abuses. The three-day conference will feature presentations by about 50 human rights activists and government officials. A photo exhibition detailing rights abuses in North Korea has been on display in front of Seoul's City Hall since Sunday. At today's opening session of the conference at the Shilla Hotel, the participants will hear reports on the situation in the North, including testimony from two North Korean defectors. Tomorrow, discussion will turn to means of promoting improvements of the human rights regime there. Jay Lefkowitz, the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights, will be one of the speakers. The conferees will discuss their groups' strategies for a human rights campaign in the afternoon. [Camouflage] ..
• U.S. Chemical Warfare Denounced
  Pyongyang, December 4 (KCNA) -- It is the aggressive nature and brutality of the U.S. imperialists that remains unchanged though century and the times have changed. The U.S. imperialists' loudmouthed "peace" and "anti- terrorism" seek dangerous plots for aggression and their nuclear and biological and chemical weapons are gravely threatening the existence of humankind. The U.S. imperialists used to mobilize a lot of modern military equipment including tanks, airplanes and missiles in wars. As they could not attain their goal with them they have indiscriminately used chemical weapons in the wars of aggression against progressive countries. In this regard Rodong Sinmun Sunday in a signed article says: The U.S. imperialists' chemical warfare in Fallujah City, Iraq, clearly showed their brigandish nature and brutality of making no scruples of doing anything to attain their aggressive and predatory object. [cbw] [Double standards]
• It's Not Whether You 'Win' or 'Lose' . . .
  By Anne Applebaum Wednesday, December 7, 2005; Page A25 In recent months it has become common practice to talk about what it will take to "win" -- or what it would mean to "lose" -- the war in Iraq. Recently the pace of that talk has accelerated. Just last week President Bush published a "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq," presumably a follow-up to the speech in which he talked of "defeating the enemy." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has also assured Congress that "we are not losing this war." Both were responding to politicians such as Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, who worried out loud a few months ago that "we're losing in Iraq," as well as the experts who voice the opinion, as one did in Foreign Affairs, that "the ongoing war in Iraq is not one that the United States can win." But what if all of this vocabulary -- winning, losing, victory, defeat -- is simply misplaced? There are, after all, wars that are not actually won or lost. There are wars that achieve some of their goals, that result only in partial solutions and that leave much business unfinished. There are wars that do not end with helicopters evacuating Americans from the embassy roof but that do not produce a victorious march into Berlin, either. There are wars that end ambivalently -- wars, for example, such as the one we fought in Korea.
  I hasten to explain that the comparison between Iraq and Korea does not come from nowhere: It has been suggested, implicitly and explicitly, by the Bush administration itself. In a speech last year, Vice President Cheney spoke of Harry Truman, the president who took us into Korea, as a model of "the kind of leadership required to defend freedom in our time." Rumsfeld has also pointed out that Truman, like Bush, suffered from low popular approval because of the Korean War: "Back then a great many people questioned whether young Americans should face death and injury in Korea, thousands of miles from home, for a result that seemed uncertain at best. And today the answer is the Korean Peninsula." Well, yes -- but actually it isn't all that clear that "the Korean Peninsula" really represents a slam-dunk victory, to use Bush administration terminology. Certainly in 1953, when the cease-fire was signed, no one thought so. More than 33,000 Americans died -- more than 15times as many as have died so far in Iraq -- and more than 103,000 were wounded. Gen. Douglas MacArthur had defined "victory" as "the unification of the Korean Peninsula," but in fact the war merely preserved the status quo. The South Korean government was independent, but too weak to survive without an American military presence. Red China, as we then called it, was probably strengthened by the war, as was the tyrannical North Korean dictator, Kim Il Sung.
• KCNA Blasts U.S. "Trojan Horse" Operation to Destabilize DPRK
  Pyongyang, December 1 (KCNA) -- The U.S. Department of State in its recent annual report on the implementation of "the North Korean Human Rights Act" presented to Congress called for taking measures in the direction of helping "north Koreans have an easier and more convenient access to information from outside and seeking realistic and effective ways such as the expansion of the network of free broadcasting for north Korea, in particular, and influx of transistor radios and the manufacture and provision of video tapes". This indicates that the U.S. offensive against the DPRK over what it called "human rights", "freedom" and "democratization" has entered a full-fledged phase. The influx of "information from outside" touted by the U.S. hard-line conservative forces means the spread of bourgeois way of living and the U.S.-style view on value through decadent literary and art works and different kinds of publications. By smuggling transistor radios, undesirable publications and video tapes into the DPRK the U.S. seeks to disseminate reactionary and poisonous ideas among people in a bid to destabilize society and bring down the socialist state system [subversion] [regime change]
• S. Korea Seeks Direct U.S.-N. Korea Talks
  By JAE-SOON CHANG, Associated Press Writer Mon Dec 5, 2:03 AM ET SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea urged the United States on Monday to hold direct talks with the North to resolve concerns over its missile development, human rights abuses and other non-nuclear issues, a report said Monday. [Friction] [US NK negotiations] [Bilateral]
• KCNA Refutes U.S. Smear Campaign against DPRK
  Pyongyang, November 30 (KCNA) -- The U.S. hard- line conservatives have become evermore undisguised in their campaign to label the DPRK a "lawless state." They painted the DPRK as "the only country in the world which is actively sponsoring crimes", "a criminal state linked with an organized criminal group" and "an abnormal state," asserting that it is linked with the "group engaged in issuing counterfeit notes." This is the most malignant mud-slinging at the dignified DPRK and its system. It is neither surprising nor new to the DPRK that the U.S. is misleading the public opinion with sheer lies intended to give impression that the DPRK is sponsoring crimes. The DPRK can not but take note of the fact that the U.S. hard-line conservatives have escalated the campaign to slander the DPRK as a "lawless state" in a phased manner after the publication of the September 19 joint statement. This campaign is part of the U.S. psychological operation to brand the DPRK as "a lawless state", tarnish its image and isolate and stifle its system at any cost.
• US Paid $6.2 Mil. to Korean Victims of Vietnam War
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The United States granted about $6.2 million (6.5 billion won) to South Korean victims of the Vietnam War, including relatives of fallen soldiers and the injured during the war, declassified documents said Friday. The dossier disclosed by the Defense Ministry said that the compensation broke down into 2.99 billion won for 4,968 soldiers killed in battle and 3.5 billion won for the 8,004 wounded. The compensation was based on the Brown Memorandum, which Seoul and Washington signed in March 1966, the documents said. Under the memorandum, named after then U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Winthrop Brown, Washington promised to offer financial and military assistance to Seoul in return for the additional dispatch of South Korean troops to Vietnam. The 1,700-page documents also said South Korean troops were paid monthly allowances at the level of those of other foreign soldiers participating in the war, such as those of Thailand and the Philippines. Civic groups composed of South Korean veterans of the Vietnam War have raised suspicions that the then Park Chung-hee government might have diverted part of their allowances into funds for economic projects, including the construction of the Seoul-Pusan Expressway.
  In 1965, South Korea sent combat troops to Vietnam under the Brown Memorandum. About 313,000 South Korean soldiers served in Vietnam between 1963 and 1973. The number of South Korean soldiers who died in the war reached some 5,000 and about 11,000 others were wounded, according to the documents.
• `Winter Sonata' Heading to US
  By Kim Tae-jong Staff Reporter Two popular Korean drama series ``Winter Sonata'' and ``Full House'' will be aired throughout the United States through a cable channel. ImaginAsian TV (iaTV), the 24 hour Asian American Television Network in U.S., announced on its homepage that it had acquired the two hit Korean drama serials from the Korea Broadcasting System (KBS) and will air ``Winter Sonata'' from Dec. 25 and ``Full House'' from Jan. 18. [Hallyu]
• Korea, US to Discuss Command Transfer
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States will begin full-fledged discussions on Seoul's bid to regain wartime operational control of its armed forces from its half-century-old ally in defense talks on Dec. 6-7 in Seoul, the Defense Ministry said Thursday. [Sovereignty] [US military dominance]
• Scholar brands policy to North uncoordinated
  December 02, 2005 ? As the nations involved in North Korean nuclear negotiations search for a way to implement an international accord reached in September that would see North Korea dismantle its nuclear weapons, Jack Pritchard, a former U.S. envoy for North Korean affairs, said yesterday that prospects for the nuclear talks were "unclear." "There is a two-track policy employed by Washington which is uncoordinated and may have a negative effect," Mr. Pritchard told the JoongAng Daily. The former envoy, currently a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, participated yesterday in a forum on Korean peninsula issues and the geopolitical future of East Asia hosted by the JoongAng Ilbo, the institute, the Seoul Forum for International Affairs and the Korean-American Association. He said Washington's short-term goal of coming to terms with Pyongyang's nuclear threat, while taking into account the concerns of other nations, and the Bush administration's aim to simultaneously crack down on North Korea's illegal activities, such as money laundering, would have to be well balanced. " I don't think the administration thought through everything when they did this. How they [Washington] resolve this issue is important." At a fifth round of six-party talks in November that merely served to feel out each nation's position, the North's chief negotiator Kim Gye- gwan expressed Pyongyang's displeasure at Washington for imposing sanctions in October against eight North Korean companies suspected of weapons proliferation, and demanded Washington withdraw accusations that counterfeit $100 bills known as "supernotes" originated in Pyongyang. The talks broke off without a date being set to reconvene and observers noted that reaching a consensus over the implementation and sequencing of the joint agreement will be as hard, if not harder, as reaching the agreement in September. Mr. Pritchard also suggested Washington erred when it allowed the issue of a light water reactor to be included in the joint statement. "If it (Washington) had no intention of providing a light water reactor in the first place, to agree to that language was a mistake." In the fourth round of negotiations that led to the agreement, Washington faced pressure from other parties to give in to this demand or take partial blame for a possible breakdown in the talks. Washington agreed to discuss "at an appropriate time" the provision of the light water reactor. In a paper presented to the forum, Mr. Pritchard underlined this point: "It was probably a strategic mistake to make the tactical decision to sign the joint statement of September 19, that contained the promise of a serious discussion of a future light water reactor for Pyongyang." by Brian Lee [Six Party Talks] [JS050919] [Partisan] [Strategic incoherence]
• U.S. "Annual Report on Religious Freedom" Rebuffed
  Pyongyang, November 22 (KCNA) -- The United States in a recent "annual report on religious freedom" in different countries of the world listed eight countries including the DPRK as "states suppressing religion," charging that those countries are still suppressing religious freedom. Rodong Sinmun Tuesday observes in a signed commentary in this regard: This is part of the U.S. moves to tarnish the image of the DPRK and isolate and stifle anti-U.S. countries one by one. The U.S. authorities have found fault with the religious views and faith criticizing or refusing to accept the American-style bourgeois view on value and life style, persecuted, arrested and killed religionists for offering resistance to the U.S., discontent with its anti-popular and unequal state and social system. They have not hesitated to suppress and kill foreign religionists.
• Semantic Dispute Cancels N. Korea, Treasury Meeting
  By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, December 1, 2005; Page A22 In the latest diplomatic kerfuffle between the United States and North Korea, a planned meeting between North Korean and Treasury officials was scrubbed this week over a dispute about the meaning of the word "bilateral." The issue may seem arcane, but it has achieved outsize importance among North Korea watchers as a sign that the Bush administration has begun to limit its diplomatic flexibility in dealing with North Korea since a tentative agreement was reached in September for North Korea to give up its nuclear programs.
  State Department officials deny that, but the net result is that a group of senior North Korean officials -- including Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan -- decided not to travel to New York for planned meetings with U.S. officials Dec. 9 to 11. The dispute has its roots in the last round of six-nation talks on North Korea's weapons programs, conducted last month in Beijing. During the talks, the North Korean officials complained bitterly about recent Treasury Department actions against companies and banks allegedly involved in counterfeiting, money laundering and arms proliferation on behalf of North Korea. Kim labeled the actions "economic sanctions," but Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill responded that they were law enforcement actions unrelated to the talks. He suggested that North Korean officials come to the United States for a briefing on the matter. [US NK negotiations] [Sanctions]
• Dancing Alone: A Hard Look at Soft Power
  By Brantly Womack
  [Japan Focus, 21 November 2005]
  It seems ironic that the two international relations concepts of the 1990s that most captured the imagination of the world's intellectuals were the "clash of civilizations" and "soft power." At first sight, they could hardly be more different despite the similar backgrounds of their authors as professors at Harvard and consultants for the Defense Department. Samuel Huntington's 1993 Foreign Affairs article, "The Clash of Civilizations?", rejected root and branch the idea of cross-cultural understanding and called on the West to circle its wagons against the Muslims and the Confucians. By contrast, Joseph Nye's notion of "soft power," first suggested in 1990 and developed more recently in Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (2004), suggests that American attractiveness in the world can be as important as its carrots and sticks in inducing international compliance. While Huntington viewed cultural contact as the tectonic friction between geologic plates of civilization, Nye sees the encouragement of international exchanges and the better marketing of American foreign policy as necessary accessories to guns and money.
  Despite the very real differences between Huntington and Nye, there is an underlying similarity, and that similarity corresponds to a continuity in American foreign policy in the post-Cold War era from Bush to Clinton to Bush. Although Nye is interested in the capacity of the United States to achieve its aims by persuasion rather than by the direct application of force or rewards, he does not see American policy and goals as interactive with the rest of the world. Essentially, he sees the challenge of soft power as that of making "our" (American) goals more attractive. While Huntington is unilateralist with the windows closed, Nye is unilateralist with the windows open.
• Hyde Thanks Lawmakers for Statue
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Henry Hyde, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations, thanked South Korean lawmakers for defending the statue of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Inchon and the alliance between the two countries.
• Anti-U.S. Rally and Demos in Pusan
  Pyongyang, November 17 (KCNA) -- At least 400 people affiliated to the Pusan Citizens' Action against Bush reportedly held a ceremony of declaring an all-out struggle in front of Kyongsong University and staged a demonstration on Nov. 12. The participants of the ceremony declared that the forces of the progressive movement would unite and launch a widespread anti-U.S. struggle with U.S. President Bush's Pusan visit as a momentum. At the end of the ceremony they staged demonstrations in different parts of the city. They occupied roads and distributed printed materials opposing the U.S., war and neo-liberal "globalization", shouting slogans such as "No Bush." On Nov. 3 an anti-U.S., anti-war joint meeting of the "National People's Solidarity" and the Reunification Solidarity released slogans calling for an anti-U.S., anti-Bush struggle.
• Kindergarten children put money into charity pots manufactured and donated by Fissler Korea
  Time of giving: Kindergarten children put money into charity pots manufactured and donated by Fissler Korea, a kitchenware maker, in front of the Salvation Army headquarters in central Seoul, Monday. The Salvation Army will place about 10,000 pots nationwide at financial services companies, kindergartens and fast food restaurants for donations until the end of the year.[photo] [Softpower][religion]
• US Urged to Waive Visas for S. Koreans
  A lawmaker has urged the United States to waive its tourist visa requirement for South Korean nationals and reopen a consulate in Pusan, the second largest city in the country.
  Yoo also called on Washington to take steps for the reopening of the American consulate in Pusan, which was closed in 1996. The absence of a U.S. consulate in the region has been a great inconvenience for the people living in the area, where one-third of South Korea's population reside, he said. Earlier this month, U.S. Senator Joseph Biden, a Democrat from Delaware, urged the Bush administration to take the same steps regarding the visa waiver and the Pusan consulate.
• North Korea Decries CNN Documentary
  The Associated Press Saturday, November 26, 2005; 10:31 PM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea criticized CNN for airing footage purporting to show a public execution, accusing it of being part of a U.S. government-organized slander campaign. Earlier this month, CNN aired a documentary with footage defectors claimed to have smuggled out of the North, including a public execution of a person who had helped someone defect to China. The network had said North Korea declined to respond to a request for comment.
  In commentary by its official Korean Central News Agency, the North said the footage was "full of sheer lies" and accused CNN of airing the tape at the instigation of the U.S. government as part of an alleged psychological campaign to overthrow the regime. [Black] [Media] [Human rights]
• A Better Korea Strategy
  By David C. Kang Monday, November 28, 2005; Page A21
  One of the less publicized but perhaps most important matters before President Bush on his recent trip to South Korea for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit was that of relations between the United States and the host country. Although South Korea has long been a close ally of the United States, relations between the two have cooled in recent years, and the alliance has come under great strain. Bush's trip did not set a new direction for the alliance, which has been drifting for the past few years. There is a way to reverse this cooling in relations, I believe -- to promote U.S. strategic interests in the region, including denuclearization of North Korea; to retain U.S. influence there; and to strengthen a long-standing alliance. What is needed is an effort to widen the "North Korea problem" from one of nuclear weapons to one of unification. For South Korea, the key issue is not North Korean nuclear weapons -- it never was. South Korea's overriding concern is how to resolve the issue of national unification and integrate North Korea back into the world's most dynamic region, whether or not there are nuclear weapons. All other South Korean foreign policy issues take second place. In contrast to Korea's regional issues, U.S. concerns are global and military. [Friction] [Imperialism]
• Informal Notes on Oversight Hearing for the North Korean Human Rights Act
  Lifting the Veil: Getting the Refugees Out, Getting Our Message In: An Update on the Implementation of the North Korean Human Rights Act Joint Oversight Hearing: The Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations and the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific of the House Committee on International Relations October 27, 2005
• American public views North as biggest threat
  November 19, 2005 ? WASHINGTON ? American opinion leaders do not see South Korea as an important U.S. ally, while North Korea is viewed as the biggest threat to the United States, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, a U.S.-based institute. In the survey, conducted from Sept. 5 to Oct. 31 and released Thursday, the center questioned 2,006 American adults from the general public and 520 influential Americans, including people involved with the media, foreign affairs, security, state and local government, universities and research organizations. North Korea is cited as the biggest threat, followed by China and Iran. In a 2001 survey, a third of foreign affairs experts cited China as the greatest threat to the United States, and only two percent believed North Korea posed the biggest danger to the country. "The Iraq war and continuing threat of terrorism have dramatically affected the way opinion leaders and the public look at potential threats from other countries," said the report. [Threat] [Public opinion]
• Rodong Sinmun on Reactionary Nature of American- Style "Democracy"
  Pyongyang, November 16 (KCNA) -- American-style "democracy" is the most reactionary and anti- popular ruling system that mercilessly tramples down the people's desire and demand for freedom and democracy and a tool of aggression and interference. Rodong Sinmun says this in a signed article exposing its reactionary nature Wednesday. There can never be "democracy for all people" or "equality for all people" in the U.S. society, the article says, and goes on: The allegation that it is a clear example of "democracy" that the Republican Party and the Democratic Party of the U.S. have alternately taken power through elections to pursue the bourgeois policy is a crafty trick to deceive the people. The two parties' wrangle while slandering each other is nothing but a farce to cover the reactionary nature of bourgeois policy with the veil of "democracy." The election system so-called "best expression of American-style democracy" proves how wantonly the political rights of the working people, majority of the U.S. society, are violated. It is clumsy deception that bourgeois counsels are espousing "freedom" of speech, demonstration and assembly. Besides, under American-style "democracy" misanthropy and the jungle law are predominant, extreme racial discrimination, maltreatment of women and children, crimes of terrible violence, slavish flesh traffic and corrupted gangster culture are prevailing and the people live always under the threat of lives. This is part of American-style "democracy". The U.S. aggressive foreign policy and war moves are an undisguised challenge to democracy. The U.S. infringement on sovereignty, human massacre and harass of peace under the pretext of "anti-terrorist war" veiled by "democracy" bring to light the criminal nature of the U.S. imperialists as a strangler of democracy. The false, deceptive and reactionary nature of the U.S.- loudmouthed "democracy" is fully laid bare by the human rights abuses of the U.S. imperialist aggression forces who brutally killed innocent people in Iraq and are engaged in inhuman maltreatment and torture of prisoners and the tragic reality of Iraq. The U.S. ruling quarters and bourgeois advocators try to cover their anti-popular and reactionary socio-political system with "democracy" and justify human rights abuses, aggression and war crimes, but in vain. The reactionary nature of American-style "democracy" can never be concealed.
• AmCham Chief Calls on Bush to Waive Visas for Koreans
  By Choi Kyong-ae Staff Reporter PUSAN _ The American business community in Korea will strongly back the visa waiver program to allow South Koreans to travel to the United States without visas, said Tami Overby, president of American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AmCham). ``The American business community here wants very much for Korea to be visa free. It will help our economy, trade relationship and friendship,'' Overby said in an exclusive interview with The Korea Times on Thursday. ``Many Koreans feel hurt because they are not in the program,'' Overby said. ``That's why we must help Korea qualify and Korea meet the criteria.''
• Majority of Americans See N. Korean Nukes as Major Threat
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- Two-thirds of Americans see North Korea's nuclear program as a major threat to the United States, an opinion survey released Thursday said. North Korea, China and Iran were cited as the three countries representing the greatest danger to the U.S., a marked change from 2001, when a majority pointed to China as the biggest threat, according to the survey conducted by Pew Research Center. Pew is an independent opinion research group that conducts national surveys measuring public attentiveness to major news. This year's poll surveyed 520 people from various sectors categorized as opinion leaders and 2,006 members of the general public. Results were compiled from responses to questionnaires between Sept. 5 and Oct. 31. Opinion leaders were pooled from the news media, foreign affairs, security, state and local governments, academia and think tanks, religious organizations, science, engineering and the military. Among opinion leaders, between 9 and 26 percent named North Korea as posing the greatest danger to the U.S. [Threat] [Public opinion] [China confrontation]
• President Bush Visits South Korea
  Weeklong Trip to Asia Also Includes Stops in Japan, China and Mongolia
  David C. Kang Co-author of "Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies"/Dartmouth College Friday, November 18, 2005; 12:00 PM David C. Kang , co-author of "Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies," and an associate professor of government at Dartmouth College, was online Friday, Nov. 18, at noon ET to discuss President Bush 's visit to South Korea as part of his weeklong trip to four Asian nations.
  Arlington, Va.: In addition to the bird flu and other current issues, how much will Bush focus on the problem of nuclear proliferation? Even though this is a long term problem it seems critical enough that it would be high on the agenda in this visit. Any concrete progress or plans from South Korean leaders and Bush? David C. Kang: Proliferation is high on Bush's agenda. Regarding North Korea, that is clearly the administration's highest priority, and all other concerns (human rights in North Korea, economic reforms, etc.) are a distant second. Bush will mention human rights, for example, but again this is more to placate domestic constituents (particularly Congress) than it is a major policy priority. The question, of course, is what type of policy to take regarding proliferation. Both South Korea and China see the North Korean nuclear problem as part of a larger issue of North Korean economic reform and opening. The Bush administration tends to see these as separate issues, and wants to concentrate more on nuclear proliferation measures without addressing economic measures.

• U.S., S. Korea Find Unity Against North's Nuclear Arms Program
  President Roh, With China's Leader, Had Earlier Taken Softer Line
  By Peter Baker and Anthony Faiola Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, November 17, 2005; Page A20 GYEONGJU, South Korea, Nov. 17 -- President Bush and his South Korean counterpart presented a united front Thursday in pressuring North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program without additional concessions, despite calls just a day earlier by South Korea and China for a softer line. Meeting here in advance of an Asian economic summit, Bush and President Roh Moo Hyun staked out an uncompromising stand toward North Korea and labored to play down differences of opinion about strategy. Bush again flatly rejected North Korea's demand to help it build a light-water civilian nuclear reactor until it has dismantled its entire nuclear weapons program.
  "We'll consider the light-water reactor at the appropriate time," Bush said. "The appropriate time is after they have verifiably given up their nuclear weapons and/or programs." Roh said the two leaders agreed "that a nuclear-armed North Korea will not be tolerated" and added that "we have no disagreement at all that this issue must be resolved." The public show of harmony came a day after Roh emerged from a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao with a joint declaration urging negotiators at nuclear arms talks to show "sincere flexibility" toward the government of North Korea. The Chinese-South Korean position appeared to further distance the two from the approach adopted by the United States and Japan drawing a hard line against the North, a schism complicating Bush's attempt to promote solidarity during his week-long, four-nation Asian trip. But after a lengthy discussion with Bush focusing heavily on how to handle North Korea, Roh did not repeat that formulation when the two leaders appeared before reporters here in this thousand-year-old capital of old Korea [Friction] [US dominance]
• S. Korea to Pull Some Troops Out of Iraq
  By JAE-SOON CHANG The Associated Press Friday, November 18, 2005; 2:04 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea announced plans to pull a third of its troops out of Iraq, a day after President Bush met with his South Korean counterpart and praised him as a staunch ally in the Iraq conflict. Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung reported the plan to withdraw about 1,000 troops from Iraq to the ruling Uri Party on Friday, the ministry said.
  About 3,200 South Korean troops are stationed in northern Iraq, the third-largest contingent in the U.S.-led coalition after the United States and Britain. [Friction] [Sovereignty]
• Allies Agree on Korean Peace Regime
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter KYONGJU, North Kyongsang Province _ South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush agreed in a summit Thursday on the need to replace the half-century- old armistice treaty with a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. In the one-hour talks in this ancient capital city, the two leaders also agreed to launch a strategic dialogue at the ministerial level early next year to consult on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual concern, according to a joint declaration issued after the summit. The ``Kyongju Declaration'' gives an impetus to the talks for a peace regime, first offered in the Sept. 19 joint statement issued at the fourth round of the six-party nuclear talks in Beijing as they reaffirmed the need for the separate forum to discuss the matter.
  International law experts regard that, once the armistice is replaced with a peace regime, the United Nations Command (UNC) would naturally be dismantled and Seoul will take back the military command, currently held by the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea and the UNC. In display of unity in dealing with the nuclear issue, Roh and Bush reiterated that a nuclear- armed North Korea will not be tolerated. They reaffirmed the principles that the issue should be resolved through peaceful means, in which Pyongyang must eliminate its nuclear programs. ``I have to say we didn't have many differing opinions on this,'' Roh said during a joint press conference after the summit, answering a question whether he found any difference while talking with Bush on the issue. But, Bush stuck to his position that no help on building an electricity-producing light water reactor should be given to the North until after it dismantles its nuclear programs. ``We'll consider the light water reactor at an appropriate time,'' Bush said. ``The appropriate time is after they have verifiably given up their nuclear weapons and/or programs.'' Roh said he would not make haste to hold a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. He admitted the possibility is open and he is ready to have an inter-Korean summit but said it would be undesirable to pursue a "summit for the sake of summit." [Sovereignty] [Friction] [In denial]
• US Envoy on NK Rights to Visit Seoul
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The U.S. special envoy on North Korean human rights issues said Wednesday he plans to visit South Korea and other Asian countries within a couple of weeks with a concrete action plan on improving conditions in the communist state. "It will be my first visit (to the region)," Jay Lefkowitz told Yonhap News Agency at a Freedom House-hosted reception welcoming him. A former aide to President George W. Bush, Lefkowitz was appointed in August to the envoy post created under the North Korea Human Rights Act enacted last year. He reports directly to the secretary of state. [Camouflage]
• US Official Warns Consequences for NK's Counterfeiting
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- A senior U.S. official warned Wednesday there will be "significant consequences" for North Korea for its government involvement in the circulation of fake American dollars. "There are counterfeiting rings out there producing very high quality counterfeit U.S. currency that are associated with the government of North Korea," Stuart Levey, treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in remarks at the Heritage Foundation in downtown Washington. "That's something we can't just allow to occur without significant consequences," he said.
• Bush's Asia Trip
  President Attempts to Show that Asia Matters to the United States
  John Gershman President Bush is in Asia this week for a series of meetings, including bilateral meetings in Japan, South Korea, China, and Mongolia and attending the economic leaders meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. This trip comes on the heels of a disastrous trip by President Bush to Latin America, but there is little sign this trip will do much to rescue the President's sinking foreign policy reputation. The Bush administration has failed to articulate a coherent agenda for its policy toward Asia overall, a challenge made more difficult by the fact that the Republican Party is divided over how to deal with the two major challenges facing the United States in the region: North Korea and China.
• Freedom Rules: Bush Offers Platitudes and Little Else to Asia
  By John Gershman | November 16, 2005
  Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org Kicking off his trip to Asia, President Bush gave what was supposed to be a major address outlining U.S. policy toward Asia in the Japanese city of Kyoto on November 16th. The Bush administration has come under fire both at home and in the region for relative neglect of Asia, as well as failing to promote a vision for how to deal with the power of a rising China. For example, from 2001 through May 2005 the President has spent more than three times as many days in Europe than he has in Asia. Secretary of State Rice has skipped two important regional meetings on security and economic issues in the last several months. This speech and his trip were supposed to reassure leaders in the region that the Bush administration was engaged and that Asia was high on the President's agenda. The speech failed to do that and was notable for the lack of fresh thinking or even fresh language (with a couple of exceptions). Key parts of the speech targeted domestic constituencies rather than leaders or citizens of the region. So far this speech and the trip has done little to counteract the growing sense that with the partial exception of North Korea, the Bush administration has yet to demonstrate that it has good ideas for effectively engaging the world's fastest growing region.
• The United States and South Korea: Can This Alliance Last?
  by Don Oberdorfer November 17th, 2005
  Don Oberdorfer, Distinguished Journalist in Residence and adjunct professor of international relations at the Johns Hopkins University's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, wrote: "Despite distrust on the part of some of their superiors in both capitals, these people will tell you, as they have told me, that they have worked well with one another in common purposes in the Six Party Talks, bilateral talks about the U.S. military deployments in Korea and in other instances. To sum up, I believe the U.S.-R.O.K. alliance is in trouble but that it will continue, at least for a while, depending in large part on choices that Koreans decide to make." [Friction]
• U.S. Exercises for Preemptive Aerial Nuclear Attack on DPRK under Fire
  Pyongyang, November 11 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialist aggressors are now getting more frantic in their preparations for a preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK, according to a military source. They let Guam-based "B-1B" strategic bombers fly in the air above Wonju and Thaebaek on Nov. 9 and 10 for madcap bombing exercises under the simulated conditions of preemptive nuclear attacks on the DPRK. On Nov. 8 their Guam-based "B-1B" strategic bomber made a shuttle flight in the air above Yongdong and Kongju to get familiar with long- distance navigation and terrain conditions. Such exercises staged for preemptive nuclear attacks with overseas-based strategic bombers involved clearly indicate that they are becoming more undisguised in their nuclear threat to the DPRK behind the scene of the six-party talks. [nuclear threat] [denuclearization]
• Roh, Bush to Reaffirm Alliance
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States will likely issue a joint declaration after a summit in Kyongju tomorrow, in which the allies would reaffirm the half-century-old alliance and concerted efforts to end the North Korean nuclear standoff, officials said Tuesday.
• US May Expand Broadcasts to NK
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The United States will consider expanding its broadcasts to North Korea and providing literature for its people to learn about the outside world, a U.S. government report said Sunday. The State Department report to Congress said non- governmental organizations have proposed a number of ways to reach the people in North Korea, an isolated communist country. They include expanding Korean-language broadcasting, increasing medium-wave radio broadcasts, and providing radios or other devices capable of receiving foreign broadcasts in North Korea, it said.
• US Senate Passes Bill on WRSA
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The U.S. Senate passed a bill for the United States to sell its war reserve stockpile in South Korea at market value, an offer once rejected by the Asian country, officials here said Sunday. The bill, passed on Friday, allows over a period of three years sales of munitions, tanks, trucks, artillery, mortars and general purpose bombs that are currently stocked in South Korea for use in case of war, known as the War Reserves Stockpile for Allies (WRSA).
• US Wartime Command Crucial: Gen. LaPorte
  SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The chief of U.S. troops in South Korea has said his wartime operational control of both U.S. and Korean forces is the ``cornerstone of deterrence'' on the peninsula, his office said Saturday. The remarks by Gen. Leon J. LaPorte are expected to create diverse speculation as South Korea and the U.S. agreed last month to speed up talks on Seoul's wish to take back full operational control of its own military. ``Combined Forces Command has wartime operational control over more than 600,000 active-duty military personnel, from both the Republic of Korea and the United States, making it the cornerstone of deterrence on the Korean Peninsula,'' LaPorte was quoted as saying by his office during a ceremony marking the 27th anniversary of the joint command on Monday in Seoul. ``Our collective military strength is without parallel in the world. Our forces are vigilant and well-trained. Our readiness and `Fight Tonight' mentality are unrivaled,'' he said. South Korea voluntarily put the operational control of its troops under the American-led U.N. command during the 1950-53 Korean War. It took back peacetime control of its troops in 1994, but wartime control remains in the hands of a four-star U.S. general who heads 30,000 American troops here. In their annual talks on Oct. 22, the defense chiefs of South Korea and the U.S. agreed to ``appropriately accelerate'' talks on the wartime operational control issue. Many South Koreans regard regaining wartime operational control of their military as an issue of national pride. 11-13-2005 18:53 [Sovereignty] [ US military dominance] [Friction]
• Bush Shifts Focus With Trip to Asia
  President Tries to Show U.S. Commitment to Region By Peter Baker Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, November 15, 2005; Page A18
  KYOTO, Japan, Nov. 15 -- President Bush embarked on a week-long trip to Asia on Monday aimed at reasserting the U.S. role in a region where China has moved to expand its influence lately while the Bush administration was focused on the Middle East. Flying out of Washington just a week after returning from Latin America, the president will again escape, at least temporarily, the domestic political difficulties that have plagued him in Washington. But analysts and diplomats predict he could find the geopolitical challenges of Asia vexing in their own way as he navigates the touchy sensibilities of the region.
  The stops in Japan, South Korea, China and Mongolia will center on issues as far afield as trade imbalances and avian flu, officials said, while security matters such as North Korea nuclear arms negotiations and perennial tensions over Taiwan and the legacy of World War II complicate the diplomatic discussions. Stung by news reports focusing on the setbacks of the Latin America trip, White House officials tried to lower expectations this time.
• Bush May Stay in US Aircraft Carrier
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter
  PUSAN _ U.S President George W. Bush may stay in the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, which arrived in the port of Pusan (Busan) for military exercises, while attending the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Pusan, sources said Sunday. Bush will arrive in South Korea Wednesday, one day ahead of the scheduled summit with President Roh Moo-hyun in the southeastern city of Kyongju, a U.S. Embassy official said. Washington has kept secret where Bush will stay during the global meeting, fearing potential terrorist attacks against the U.S. president. Earlier yesterday, the USS Kitty Hawk from Yokosuka, Japan, arrived at Pusan with about 5,200 sailors and 60 aircraft, including F-18 Super Hornets, for a joint military exercise training between South Korea and the U.S. planned to start next week. But there are speculations that Bush will stay in the advanced aircraft carrier.
• Bush's 2-Faced Approach to Kim Jong Il
  Bush has addressed the North Korean leader as 'Mr.' at a news conference but 'tyrant' in private
  In his June summit meeting with South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun, U.S. President George W. Bush, in private, called the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il a "tyrant" four times, various South Korean government officials told OhmyNews. Bush addressed the North Korean leader as "Mr. Kim Jong Il" at the summit's news conference, a small concession that preceded the resumption of the stalled six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program. A fourth round of six-party talks, bringing together the United States, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea, and North Korea convened in Beijing on July 26 after a 13- month hiatus. Officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told OhmyNews that it was at Roh's request that Bush used the word "Mr." at the news conference. Roh traveled to Washington D.C. in June for a working visit, in the wake of bilateral contact between North Korea and United States in New York for possible resumption of six-party talks stalled for nearly a year. But when the two met in a closed-door meeting, Bush used the word "tyrant" as he expressed concerns about North Korean human rights and nuclear weapons. According to the officials, Roh first opened the meeting by saying that it would be effective at this stage of North Korean nuclear issue that Bush to address the North Korean leader as "Mr. Kim Jong Il." Bush responded by saying: "That just shows how desperate he is," officials told OhmyNews. When Roh formally requested that Bush specifically use the term "Mr." Bush relented saying that he would do so if that would bring about a breakthrough in the North Korean nuclear stalemate. But then he added: "But it just shows how flimsy he is." [Vituperation]
• US Stalls Inter-Korean Phone Link
  By Kim Tae-gyu Staff Reporter Creating a phone link between South Korea and the Kaesong industrial park in North Korea seems to be impossible this year due to the need for approval by the United States on exports of strategic items. KT, South Korea's foremost fixed-line telecom operator in charge of connecting the nation to Kaesong, yesterday said the U.S. has yet to give the nod to exports of telecom equipment to the North. ``The U.S. is unlikely to give the green light to shipping telecom gear to the North in the days to come. This means the inter-Korean phone connection will be delayed to next year as we need time for construction even after obtaining U.S. approval,'' said a KT insider, who declined to be named. [Sanctions]
• KCNA Refutes U.S. Anti-DPRK Human Rights Campaign
  Pyongyang, November 8 (KCNA) -- The United States has become all the more vicious in its anti-DPRK smear campaign under the pretext of its "human rights issue." Shortly ago, the U.S. manipulated the Freedom House and other NGOs to hold an "international conference on the north Korean human rights issue" and staged such farce as mailing a bundle of letters of complaints. It also instigated Britain and other countries to fabricate and spread sheer fictions about "illicit dealings" such as "counterfeit notes" and "drug smuggling." Under the U.S. manipulation Britain referred "a draft resolution on the north Korean human rights issue" to the 60th session of the UN General Assembly on behalf of the EU despite the objection of several countries including some EU nations, thus joining the U.S. in its "human rights" campaign. This clearly reveals that the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK remains unchanged as it diametrically runs counter to the spirit of the fourth round of the six-party talks. The U.S. is keen to slander the DPRK and pressurize it at a time when key issues pending solution between the two countries need serious discussion with the fifth round of the six-party talks near at hand. It is virtually intolerable when taking the relations between sovereign states into account and a serious insult to its dialogue partner. Lurking behind the U.S. "human rights racket" is a foolish attempt to escalate pressure upon the DPRK, wrest a "concession" from it at the forthcoming six-party talks and, furthermore, realize a "regime change" in it.
• Korean War Memorial to Be Built in Arkansas
  By Lee Hyo-sik Staff Reporter This is an artist's conception of a Korean War memorial square to be built inside MacArthur memorial park in Little Rock, Ark. The construction is to be completed by next August. / Courtesy of Hanam City A local municipality and the Korean government will finance construction of a Korean War memorial square in the U.S. as a dispute over a statue of the late U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur in South Korea continues. Hanam City, east of Seoul, and the Ministry of Patriots & Veterans Affairs (MPVA) plan to contribute some 420 million won ($400,000) to create the memorial square in Little Rock, capital of the U.S. state of Arkansas and the hometown of Gen. MacArthur.
• S. Korea Reluctant to Dispatch Troops to Haiti
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The United Nations has asked South Korea to send a company-sized infantry unit to Haiti to help the Caribbean country in disorder following a rebellion that led to the oust of its president last year, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday. The government, however, notified the U.N. of its difficulty in dispatching troops, citing the lack of available forces to be sent to foreign countries, ministry officials said. ``The government asked the U.N. to understand Seoul's situation under which it cannot dispatch additional troops abroad at this moment, as it has 3,250 solders in Iraq for humanitarian mission,'' said Lt. Col. Kim Lag-jung at the ministry's public affairs office. [Friction]
• NK Slams Bush for Tyrant Remarks
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ North Korea slammed U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday for calling its leader Kim Jong-il "a tyrant." The criticism came after Bush said in a meeting with Brazilian leaders on Sunday that Japan was on the same side as the U.S. in dealing with a tyrant in North Korea. "We will never pardon whoever dares speak ill of our supreme headquarters in any case," a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the (North) Korean Central News Agency, monitored here. If Bush issued such comments, he violated the spirit of the joint statement produced at the six-party talks that calls for "respect for sovereignty " and "peaceful co-existence," said the North Korean official. [Vituperation]
• South Korea, US Discuss New War Supplies Accord
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States are negotiating an ammunition procurement agreement to help Seoul obtain military supplies swiftly in case of war on the Korean Peninsula, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday. The ministry's delegation suggested the idea to its U.S. counterpart during a meeting of the Logistics Cooperation Committee (LCC), a sub-panel of the annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), last June in Hawaii, ministry officials said. ``We made the proposal in order to secure military ammunition and equipment swiftly in case of an emergency on the peninsula. It also aims to reduce the time of getting approval from the U.S. Congress for buying U.S. military equipment,'' Maj. Gen. Choi Kwang-sup, chief of the ministry's logistics office, told reporters. Under the proposed agreement, South Korea would be provided by the U.S. detailed information on the contact points and locations of military procurement agencies in the U.S. to help the country's military officers there purchase military materials, including weapons systems, swiftly and efficiently, Choi said. The U.S. said it wanted further negotiations on the issue between the two allies, he added. [US military dominance]
• The Price of Asia's Growth
  ? The U.S. is no longer the sole power that many nations look to for trade and protection.
  By Tyler Marshall, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON - As the Bush administration struggles to combat the threat of international terrorism, a far quieter force is challenging America's global influence: the growing economic clout of Asia. Increasingly, other nations have become captivated by the reality, and the potential, of fast-developing commercial ties with the East. Suddenly, America is no longer the only guarantor of their economic viability or their political protector of choice.
  In South Korea, China has replaced the U.S. as Seoul's largest trading partner and its biggest foreign destination for capital investment. During six-nation talks to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions, South Korea has consistently lined up closer to positions set out by Beijing than by its alliance partner, Washington. [China confrontation] [Bush policy] [Partisan]
• Bush resumes attacks on North's 'tyrant'
  November 08, 2005 ? U.S. President George W. Bush has resumed his attacks on North Korea, referring to Kim Jong-il once again as a tyrant. Mr. Bush, speaking to young leaders during a visit to Brazil, praised Japan's democracy and called its government "an ally in dealing with a tyrant in North Korea." After abandoning the term "axis of evil" to refer to North Korea, Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Iran, the Bush administration has continued to jab periodically at the North. Mr. Bush and other U.S. officials have used the term "outpost of tyranny" to refer to the North, and Mr. Bush called the North's leader a tyrant at a press conference last April. After a string of invective from Pyongyang and a deadlock in nuclear talks that include the two nations, Mr. Bush resumed using the term "Mr. Kim" - at least temporarily. [Vituperation]
• American Military Strategist Offers Scenarios for Kim Jong-il's Removal
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) _ A U.S. military strategist, claiming it is urgent to remove North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, offers three scenarios that at worst would mean a direct threat of war and the flaunting of occupation plans. In his new book "Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating," published late last month, Thomas Barnett argues the United States must stabilize Asia in order to free its military resources for more urgent tasks in the Middle East. Stabilizing Asia requires "putting a leash" on Taiwan, forging partnerships with China and India, and ousting Kim Jong-il, Barnett says. He also predicts Kim's ouster could come as early as 2010 through a U.S.-China partnership.
  It offers three scenarios for ousting Kim Jong-il, which he categorizes as "Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." The "good" scenario is to offer Kim asylum in another country, while the "bad" scenario is to snatch him like Panama's Manuel Noriega and put him on trial like Slobodan Milosevic.
  The "ugly" version is to show Kim the Pentagon neocons' war and post-war occupation plans, says Barnett. The U.S. would need the help of South Korea, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Russia to remove Kim, and ensuring China's participation means willingness to make serious concessions on the U.S. part, writes the author. [Bizarre] [Regime change]
• Convicted spy, handler are reunited
  November 07, 2005 ? ? A cheerful Robert Kim, left, reunited with teary-eyed Baek Dong-il yesterday at the Incheon International Airport. Mr. Kim served a prison sentence for transferring classified U.S. Navy information to Mr. Baek in 1996. [NEWSIS] Robert Kim, a Korean-American data analyst who was convicted of espionage in a U.S. court, arrived in Korea yesterday after completing his prison term and probation last month. Mr. Kim, 64, said he was grateful to the Korean people. "I'm returning to Korea for the first time in ten years. I've lost much during that time, but gained much more in receiving the love of the people. "I wasn't a spy," he contended upon his arrival in his native country. But he was met at the airport by Baek Dong-il, a former military attache at the Korean Embassy in Washington who received the stolen information provided by Mr. Kim, according to Mr. Kim's statements to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation shortly after his arrest. [Espionage] [Friction]
• Robert Kim Arrives in Homeland After 9 Yrs
  By Kim Rahn Staff Reporter Robert Kim, left, who arrived in Korea after nine-years of imprisonment in the U.S. for spying charges, waves to people upon arriving at Incheon International Airport, Sunday, with Baek Dong-il, former attache at Korean Embassy to whom Kim passed classified information. /Yonhap Robert Kim, a Korean-American who spent nine years in a U.S. prison for spying for South Korea, arrived in his motherland Sunday for the first time in 10 years. Kim, 64, a former U.S. Navy computer specialist, was put behind bars from 1997 until July last year for passing classified documents of the navy to Baek Dong-il, then military attache at the South Korean Embassy in Washington. [Espionage] [Friction]
• In Mexico, northerner plans to settle in U.S.
  October 27, 2005 ? A North Korean currently in Mexico, a Korean newspaper's U.S. edition said yesterday, wants to get to the United States and doesn't particularly care whether he does it legally or illegally. The Hankuk Ilbo report said the 46-year-old man, who escaped from North Korea into China and then to Mexico, said he planned either to apply for refugee status at an American consulate there or cross the border illegally. If the man decides to apply for asylum, his would be the first such application since the passage of U.S. legislation intended to ease the way for North Koreans seeking it. The legislation applies to all North Koreans except for those who have settled in South Korea after escaping from the North. A report to Congress under the new law said seven North Koreans applied for refugee status in 2005 but none were accepted. [refugee encouragement] [Refugee reception]
• Historical Amnesia' Hurts Korea-US Alliance: Clinton
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter Former U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton said ``historical amnesia'' among South Koreans about the important role the United States has played in supporting the country's development is putting strain on their longstanding military alliance. Clinton, a Democratic senator for New York, made the comment on Tuesday during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing for new appointees, including Gen. Burwell B. Bell, who is nominated to take over as commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK). Addressing recent signs of divergence between the wartime allies, Clinton said the relationship between the United States and South Korea is at a ``critical juncture.'' She argued that the strain in their relationship is due partly to a shift in South Koreans' ``understanding of the importance of our position there and what we have done over so many decades to provide them the freedom that they have enjoyed to develop the economy that is now providing so many benefits for South Koreans.'' ``I think there is a lack of understanding and a sense of historical amnesia,'' Clinton told the hearing. She said both countries should seek to understand each other and recognize the importance of their alliance. Anti-American sentiment has grown among South Koreans in recent years in parallel with a thawing of relations with communist North Korea [Anti-Americanism]
• Public Opinion on Korea-US Ties
  The followings are excerpts from a keynote speech given by Dr. Cho Ki-suk, senior secretary to the president for public information, at Thursday's conference sponsored by the Sejong Research Institute and Georgetown University, at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., under the theme "New Era, New Alliance." _ ED Many argue that the Korea-U.S. alliance has been strained over the past several years. I can think of five causes of confusion among some scholars and politicians with regard to public opinion in Korea. First, there are differences in ways of thinking between the younger and the older generations. The older generation sees North Korea through a Cold War mentality. In other words, they understand international relations as a dichotomy. [SK attitude NK] [SK attitude US]
• ROK-US Alliance Is in Trouble: Scholar
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Don Oberdorfer The half-century alliance between South Korea and the United States has encountered bumps in the road and the trouble will continue, depending on choices that South Koreans decide to make, a U.S. expert said Thursday. In a lecture in Seoul, Don Oberdorfer, adjunct professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S., expressed concerns that relations between the two allies are in trouble now both at the popular and leadership levels. ``Recently, the divergences on the societal and political level have become more serious than in the past. I believe they threaten the alliance in a more fundamental way and to a greater degree than was the case before,'' the former Washington Post journalist said. The Seoul Peace Prize Cultural Foundation organized the lecture under the theme of ``The United States and South Korea: Can This Alliance Last?'' at the Centennial Hall of Korea University in Seoul. He pointed out that the main reason for the souring South Korea-U.S. relations lies in the two countries' policies, which are drifting apart in the opposite direction, affected by their domestic issues. [Friction]
• S. Korean Embassy in US Hires Lobbyists
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) _ The South Korean embassy in Washington has employed professional lobbyists to help increase its influence in the U.S. Congress, embassy officials said Tuesday. The embassy signed a provisional contract with Korean American-owned Scribe, a consulting and lobby agency, for a three-month period from October. If the system proves effective, the two sides are supposed to sign a formal contract in January, according to the officials. It marks the first time that the South Korean government has used its own lobby agency since a lobbying scandal, known as ``Koreagate'' or ``Park Tong-sun gate,'' shook the U.S. political community in the late 1970s. Park, now 71, caused a political stir when he testified at a U.S. public hearing that he had paid $850,000 to 32 former and incumbent members of the U.S. House of Representatives to win their support for then-South Korean military dictator Park Chung-hee. 11-02-2005 17:59 [Corruption]
• U.S. Forces in S. Korea Stage Evacuation Drill of Noncombatants
  Pyongyang, November 4 (KCNA) -- The U.S. forces in south Korea staged an exercise of evacuating noncombatants to Japan allegedly to cope with a contingency, according to the south Korean KBS. They evacuated noncombatants including GI families to the U.S. air base in Iwakuni of Japan by clippers and by air on Oct. 28 and brought them back to south Korea two days later. This was disclosed by "The Stars and Stripes" published by the U.S. Department of Defense.

• Army Deserter Recalls Abuse in N. Korea
  The Associated Press Friday, October 21, 2005; 7:19 AM RALEIGH, N.C. -- A U.S. Army deserter who spent decades in North Korea says his communist keepers abused him and controlled every aspect of his life, down to telling him how often to have sex. "It was the worst mistake anyone ever made," Charles Jenkins said. "In words, I cannot express the feelings I have towards North Korea, the harassment I got, the hard life."
  In an interview airing Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes, Jenkins said he was given no painkillers when a tattoo on his forearm that read "U.S. Army" was cut off with a scalpel and scissors. "They told me the anesthetic was for the battlefield," said Jenkins, a North Carolina native. "It was hell." Jenkins was a 24-year-old sergeant when he crossed the border into North Korea. He stayed for 39 years, appearing in propaganda films and teaching English. In 1980, he married a Japanese woman who had been kidnapped and taken to North Korea to train spies in Japanese language and culture. She was released in 2002 and Jenkins followed two years later, surrendering to U.S. authorities and serving a month in jail for desertion. The couple now live in Japan. Jenkins told "60 Minutes" that his government handlers assigned him a Korean woman with whom he was supposed to have sex twice a month, and they beat him severely when he balked. [Black]
• In Korea, conservatives love the UN
  October 25, 2005 ? Around 7,000 members of Korean conservative groups gathered yesterday in front of Seoul's City Hall to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the United Nations. But the tone of the rally was more domestic than international. The Retired Colonels Association and Kumnan Methodist Church, among others, complained that anti-American, pro-North Korean actitvists are threatening South Korea's freedom. "Leftists are disturbing the international alliance of freedom and threatening the security of the Korean peninsula by insisting on the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Korea," one civic group said in a statement. The organizers awarded plaques of appreciation to the embassies of the 21 countries that sent troops to fight with South Korean forces in the 1950-53 war or provided other forms of assistance. [YONHAP] [Photo shows US flag, not UN one] [Pro-Americanism]
• U.S. Widens Campaign on North Korea
  .By DAVID E. SANGER Published: October 24, 2005 MOSCOW, Oct. 23 - The Bush administration is expanding what it calls "defensive measures" against North Korea, urging nations from China to the former Soviet states to deny overflight rights to aircraft that the United States says are carrying weapons technology, according to two senior administration officials. At the same time, the officials said, the administration is accelerating an effort to place radiation detectors at land crossings and at airports throughout Central Asia. The devices are intended to monitor the North Koreans and the risk that nuclear weapons material could be removed from facilities in the former Soviet states. The new campaign was speeded up this summer after a previously undisclosed incident in June, when American satellites tracked an Iranian cargo plane landing in North Korea. The two countries have a history of missile trade - Iran's Shahab missile is a derivative of a North Korean design - and intelligence officials suspected the plane was picking up missile parts. [Sanctions] [PSI] [Double standards] [Missiles]
• U.S. Political Farce under Fire
  Pyongyang, October 21 (KCNA) -- The United States has recently escalated its smear campaign against the DPRK. Typical of this is its fiction about a "deal in counterfeits" floated by the U.S. this time. The U.S. is claiming that the DPRK is massively issuing highly sophisticated false 100 US dollar notes known as "super money" and spreading them worldwide. In order to verify this, no sooner had Garland, leader of the Irish Workers' Party, been arrested than the U.S. Department of Justice released on October 7 a "written indictment" which it has long prepared. The "written indictment" characterized by extreme nature of politicization and selection said that there was a "deal in counterfeits" between the DPRK and Garland. Nothing is clumsier than what was invented by the U.S., a past master at lies, fabrication, disinformation and plot. What matters is that Americans who claim to be "politicians" are advertising this case as their latest success made in the U.S. increased efforts to prevent north Korea from committing widespread international crimes. The hue and cry over the non-existent DPRK's "production and deal in counterfeits" raised by the U.S. again is nothing but a clumsy and base political farce intended to impair the image of the DPRK at any cost and justify its moves to isolate the former in the international arena and tighten its blockade against the former. The U.S. escalated smear campaign against the DPRK only goes to prove that the former regards it as one of the basic means to create impression that the latter is a "rogue state" in a bid to realize its ambition for bringing down the latter's "system" and the former remains unchanged in its policy for isolating and stifling the DPRK internationally. The socialist system in the DPRK was chosen and built by the Korean people themselves according to their will and wishes. Because of the nature of the socialist system and its popular character there can never happen nor exist in the DPRK such "illegal deals" as "deal in counterfeits" or "drug smuggling", social ills in the capitalist society. [Bluster] [Counterfeiting] [Black]
• Defense chiefs agree to tackle control transfer
  October 22, 2005 ? The defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States agreed yesterday to step up efforts to ready South Korea to regain wartime operational command by assuming an increased role in its own national defense. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and South Korean Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung held their annual security consultative meeting in Seoul. Both sides agreed to "appropriately accelerate discussions on command relations and wartime operational control," according to a joint communique issued after the meeting. No specific timing for the transfer of wartime operational command to South Korea, however, was given in the 13-point joint statement. [US military dominance] [In denial]
• Roh argues that the U.S. is warming to his views
  October 22, 2005 ? In an interview yesterday with an Internet news outlet, President Roh Moo- hyun said that the United States now viewed South Korea, and Mr. Roh's policies, in a more positive light. "The United States appears to be accepting South Korea's changed attitude," Mr. Roh said. "The U.S. must be relieved to find that I am more moderate than they initially thought." Citing ongoing discussions regarding South Korea's regaining of wartime military command, he said that Korea has been successful in gaining support for its goal of strategic flexibility. Relations with the United States have been tense under Mr. Roh's government, which has taken a much lighter approach to North Korea than has U.S. President George Bush. Some have said that Mr. Roh has unnecessarily aggravated Korea's ally. The president, however, stressed that Koreans should understand America's point of view. Describing Korea as "indebted to the United States," Mr. Roh said, "U.S. soldiers gave their lives during the Korean War and Americans thus have strong emotional solidarity with South Korea." "We need to take meticulous care of this sentiment," he added. " We have to recognize it." However, Mr. Roh noted that many Koreans tend to overestimate the American influence on the nation's security and economy. Mr. Roh also defined the biggest pending issue for both countries as strategic planning for Northeast Asia. "Korea needs to have relative independence from the United States to play an active role in the Northeast Asian order," he said. He suggested building a Northeast Asian community, in which the United States would be one of multiple powers in the Pacific. "If the United States operates on the presumption of a confrontation between itself and Japan against China and Russia, it will only lead to constant tension," Mr. Roh said. "When we only rely on the United States one-way, we cannot serve a balancing role." Mr. Roh has long spoken of Korea playing a role of balancer in the region. by Chun Su-jin [Friction] [In denial]
• Kim Yong Nam Meets American VIPs
  Pyongyang, October 20 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, met and had a conversation with Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico State of the United States, and his party at the Mansudae Assembly Hall Thursday. On hand were Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Kye Gwan and others. [Richardson]
• S. Korea, US to Speed Up Command Transfer
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States have agreed to speed up talks on transferring operational control of the nation's military back to Seoul, reflecting its increasing military and economic capabilities, the allies' defense chiefs said Friday. [US military dominance] [In denial]
• LaPorte Sees Benefits of Seoul's Sunshine Policy
  South Korea's policy of economic and political engagement with communist North Korea has noticeably reduced military tensions along their heavily fortified military border, the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea said. Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, offering rare praise for Seoul's ``sunshine'' policy, said North Korean provocations along the Demilitarized Zone have dropped over the past 18 months. ``(South Korea has) developed benefits from their engagement policy, and that is good,'' he said during an interview with visiting U.S. reporters. ``Perhaps North Korea has realized that they need assistance from South Korea. They do not want to cause problems with the economic initiatives that are ongoing.'' However, LaPorte stressed that this does not mean North Korea is no longer a military threat. ``The North Korean threat has not changed,'' he said. 10-21-2005 19:01 [Threat][In denial]
• Rumsfeld Visits Seoul
  Rumsfeld Visits Seoul: U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, left, shakes hands with Ahn Kwang-chan, deputy defense minister for policy, while Gen. Leon LaPorte, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, looks on, upon arrival at a U.S. airbase in Osan, Kyoggi Province, Thursday. [photo]
• S. Korea, US Discuss Defense Alliance
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter Top military officials of South Korea and the United States discussed Thursday the two allies' combined deterrence capability against North Korea in an annual security consultation meeting. The 27th Military Committee Meeting (MCM) was held ahead of Friday's meeting of the defense chiefs of the two countries, the Defense Ministry said. During the meeting at the ministry headquarters in Seoul, Gen. Rhee Sang-hee, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), who headed the South Korean delegation, explained the recently unveiled reform plans of the South Korean military. USFK commander Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, who led the American delegation on behalf of U.S. JCS Chairman Gen. Peter Pace, expressed gratitude to Korea for sending troops to Iraq and reaffirmed the strong partnership between the two allies, ministry officials said. [US military dominance]
• NYT Slams Yasukuni Visit
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter The New York Times has lashed Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for his visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine on Monday, describing it as a ``pointless provocation'' of the country's Northeast Asian neighbors. ``This is exactly the wrong time to be stirring up nightmare memories among the neighbors,'' the influential daily said in an editorial Tuesday, joining a barrage of criticism from commentators in China and South Korea. It was Koizumi's fifth visit as prime minister to the Tokyo shrine, which honors Japan's war dead, including war criminals convicted of carrying out atrocities throughout Asia during and before World War II.
  In contrast to the newspaper's strong condemnation of Koizumi, the U.S. government has been careful to avoid taking sides in the emotionally charged regional dispute. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters Washington hoped the Yasukuni visit will not present a barrier to cooperation among Northeast Asian powers. [Friction]
• Roh, Bush to confer Nov. 17 in Gyeongju
  October 19, 2005 ? President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush will meet on Nov. 17 in Gyeongju, the Blue House said yesterday. Mr. Bush will be in Korea for the leaders meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group that begins the next day in Busan. Mr. Bush will visit Korea for the first time during the Roh administration; the meeting will be the fifth between the two men during their presidencies. Gyeongju, the capital of the ancient Silla kingdom and rich in artistic and archeological treasures, is north of Busan in North Gyeongsang province. Before arriving in South Korea, Mr. Bush will visit Kyoto, Japan, for a meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. After the APEC meeting in Busan, he will call on China's president, Hu Jintao, in Beijing. [US dominance]
• U.S. defense secretary arrives here Thursday
  October 19, 2005 ? U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will arrive in Seoul this week for annual consultations with his counterpart, Yoon Kwang-ung, on Friday. Officials here said yesterday that the talks would center on Seoul's proposals to take a greater role in its self-defense, perhaps including regaining control of its military forces in wartime. Mr. Rumsfeld, now in China on the first leg of a five-nation Asian trip, will arrive here Thursday. This will be his second visit to Korea during his second stint as defense secretary, a job he has held since 2001. "The two sides will discuss joint research into a 'vision for the future Korea-U.S. alliance' and the need to push for consultations on the Korea-U.S. command systems, including wartime operational control," a spokesman at the ministry said.
• New Mexico State Governor Here
  Pyongyang, October 17 (KCNA) -- Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico State of the United States, and his party arrived here Monday.
• President Roh to Meet Bush in Kyongju
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter
  President Roh Moo-hyun will hold a summit with U.S. President George W. Bush to discuss ways to develop the alliance between the two countries, on Nov. 17, one day ahead of the start of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Pusan, Chong Wa Dae said Tuesday. The summit, the fifth of its kind between Roh and Bush, will be held in the ancient capital city of Kyongju, north of Pusan, with agenda items such as the allies' political and economic cooperation as well as North Korea's nuclear problem, according to the presidential office. ``The summit will not only help consolidate the friendly relationship between the two heads of state but also deepen the comprehensive, dynamic and mutually beneficial alliance,'' presidential spokesman Kim Man-soo said in a press briefing. In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan also confirmed the meeting, saying the U.S. president will also attend the APEC summit from Nov. 18 to 19. It is Bush's first visit to South Korea since the inauguration of the Roh administration in early 2003. Officials in Seoul said the Roh-Bush summit would largely focus on ways to deepen and develop the half-century-old alliance, rather than discussing such concrete topics as the transfer of the wartime military command from Washington to Seoul. [Sovereignty] [Friction]
• Vehicles for Aid Detained in Iraq
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Fourteen South Korean vehicles carrying aid shipments for the Iraqis have been seized by unidentified militias in the war-torn country since last month, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Tuesday.
  The vehicles were ambushed at Ar-Ramadi, 150 kilometers west of Baghdad, on two occasions, Sept. 19 and 21. They were on their way from the Jordanian port of Aqaba to Baghdad, the ministry said.
  ``The government has maintained quiet diplomacy by asking the Baghdad government for an early settlement of the seizures,'' a ministry official told reporters, requesting not to be named.
• US Pilots Lament Loss of Training Facilities
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter U.S. Air Force pilots in South Korea are voicing discontent for not being able to properly fly missions due to the failure of securing an alternative firing range for the Koon-Ni Range in North Cholla Province, government sources said Tuesday. The Koon-Ni Range was closed last August. Some Air Force personnel sent letters to the Pentagon, protesting the lack of training sites as flying time is important factor in promotion scores, they said.
  The United States Forces Korea (USFK), however, has been seeking an alternative range since it agreed with South Korea in 2003 to close down the firing range by August amid complaints of massive damage from local residents.
• S. Korea, US to Hold SCM Friday
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States will discuss anti-terror and security cooperation for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Pusan next month, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday. In the 37th Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) on Oct. 21 in Seoul, Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld will also discuss bilateral issues, including the relocation of U.S. military bases, Chun Je-guk, a ministry spokesman, said. The SCM is the annual defense ministers' meeting between Seoul and Washington. [Sovereignty]
• U.S. Ambition for War Disclosed
  Pyongyang, October 14 (KCNA) -- Kwon Yong Gil, lawmaker from the south Korean Democratic Workers' Party, on October 10 reportedly disclosed the fact that the United States and the south Korean authorities agreed to revise and supplement the "OPLAN 5027". Opening to the public the "guidelines for the operation plan of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command" which had been worked out at the 34th "South Korea-U.S. annual consultative meeting on security," he disclosed that the main goal of the plan is "to wipe out the army of the north, remove its regime and create conditions for unifying the Korean Peninsula" and others and it calls for "revising and updating the existing the OPLAN 5027." The stipulation that conditions shall be created for unifying the Korean Peninsula," in particular, hints at the launch of a war against the north by the forces of the United States and south Korea, he charged. If it is true that the United States has no intention to attack or invade the north with nuclear and conventional weapons, the commitment made by it in the joint statement adopted at the fourth-round of the six-way talks, it should totally repeal all war scenarios against the north, he noted. [OPLAN]
• S. Korea, US to Discuss Command Transfer Fri.
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter The defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States are expected to discuss transferring wartime command of the nation's troops back to Seoul when they meet for annual security consultations on Friday, a senior U.S. official said. According to an official at the Department of Defense in Washington, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Kwang-ung will discuss the wartime operational command at the 32nd Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) in Seoul. [US military dominance] [Sovereignty]
• NK Diplomat Seeks to Visit Washington
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) _ A senior North Korean diplomat at the United Nations is seeking permission to travel to Washington later this month to attend a symposium, the organizer said Sunday. Han Song-ryol, deputy ambassador to the U.N., Thursday accepted the invitation to speak at the Oct. 27 seminar, the Institute for Corean-American Studies (ICAS) said. ``Accordingly, we have asked... State Department to permit him to travel,'' the ICAS said. Han has notified the host that his speech is titled ``Road to Peace on the Korean Peninsula,'' the ICAS said. North Korea and the U.S. do not have formal diplomatic relations, and Pyongyang's diplomats at the U.N. must have permission to travel elsewhere in the U.S. The diplomat was last in Washington in July last year, also to attend a seminar on Korean issues. He had accompanied Amb. Pak Kil-yon, chief of North Korea's mission to the U.N. 10-17-2005 18:
• New US Amb. to Use Russia Experience on Peninsula
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) _ The new U.S. envoy to Seoul said Thursday he is ready to use what he saw in the former Soviet Union and its ensuing collapse to induce changes in North Korea. ``Each situation is different... has unique features,'' Amb. Alexander Vershbow told South Korean correspondents at the State Department. ``But certainly I hope that changes will come (in North Korea), and what I've learned working in Russia and working on problems of the breakup of the former Soviet Union... will be useful in discussions with my South Korean counterparts in helping develop the most effective strategy to encourage positive change,'' he said. He talked about the ``last act of the Cold War'' being played out on the Korean Peninsula, divided since the mid-20th century, and establishing a ``common cause'' with South Korea in overcoming this national division. The diplomat heads out to Seoul this weekend to fill the post vacant since April, when his predecessor Christopher Hill returned to Washington as assistant secretary of state. He was the ambassador to Moscow from July 2001 to the end of last year. In South Korea, recent polls suggest growing anti-Americanism as the two countries undergo major adjustments in their decades-old alliance. [Regime change] [Anti-Americanism]
• U.S. links counterfeit currency to North Korea and the IRA
  October 14, 2005 ? The U.S. government has asked Great Britain to extradite a senior member of a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army on charges of conspiring with North Korea to circulate counterfeit U.S. currency. A U.S. State Department spokesman, Adam Ereli, told reporters on Wednesday that a U.S. grand jury has indicted Sean Garland, the head of the political wing of the Official Irish Republican Army. Washington is seeking his extradition. The U.S. Department of Justice said that Mr. Garland and six others were arrested by British authorities on Oct. 7 in Northern Ireland on charges of circulating as much as $1 million worth of the counterfeits, which are known as "supernotes" because of their high quality. Mr. Garland pleaded not guilty and is free on bail. The notes were first spotted in circulation in 1989. Washington has periodically accused Pyongyang of engaging in counterfeiting and drug running, but this indictment was the most detailed exposition of those charges. In a statement, the Justice Department said the notes "were manufactured in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea under the auspices of the government and transported worldwide by North Korean individuals acting as ostensible government officials." The indictment came at a sensitive point in the six-nation negotiations to scrap North Korea's nuclear arms, but Mr. Ereli denied any connection between the counterfeiting and the talks. Although their origin has not been confirmed, "supernotes" are circulating in South Korea as well. Suh Tae-suk, an expert on counterfeit currency at the Korea Exchange Bank, told the JoongAng Daily yesterday that he has spotted this year alone fake notes that would be worth more than $200,000 if they were genuine. "Most of them are from the 2001 series," Mr. Suh said, referring to the date printed on the bills. [Counterfeiting] [Six Party Talks]
• 'NK's Counterfeiting Will Affect Relations'
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) ? The United States suspects North Korea's involvement in circulating counterfeit dollars, and bilateral relations will be affected by such illicit activity, a State Department spokesman said Wednesday. "It's... obviously connected to countries like North Korea that do this..." Adam Ereli said at a daily press briefing.
  U.S. authorities in August announced the arrest of 57 people implicated in an Asia-based smuggling ring that circulated fake currencies, among other things. Sources who refused to give names said at the time that North Korea, Thailand and China were three main countries involved in the ring. Last month, the U.S. Treasury Department named Macau licensed Banco Delta Asia SARL as North Korea's money laundering instrument and said the bank was also deeply involved in distributing fake currency from the North. Ereli said U.S. relations with North Korea will hinge on a number of elements.
• A U.S. Democrat to Go to North Korea for Nuclear Talks
  By STEVEN R. WEISMAN Published: October 14, 2005 WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 - Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a United Nations ambassador in the Clinton administration who has long maintained contacts with North Korea, will travel next week to Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, for talks aimed at persuading the North to give up its nuclear arms program, Mr. Richardson's office and the Bush administration said Thursday. Mr. Richardson, a prominent Democrat, said that he would not represent the United States as an official negotiator but that his trip was intended "to move the diplomatic process forward," following an agreement in principle reached last month in the six-nation talks involving North Korea and the United States and its partners, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China. "I am not an official envoy, but I am supportive of the administration's new policy to engage the North Koreans through dialogue and diplomacy," Mr. Richardson said Thursday in an interview. [Richardson] [Peace efforts] [Partisan]
• US says N Korea forged dollars
  Sean Garland is accused of handling the counterfeits The US has formally accused North Korea of forging millions of dollars of high-quality counterfeit US dollar notes, known as supernotes. A US court indictment said seven men, including senior Irish republican Sean Garland, distributed the $100 fakes. North Korea has long been suspected of making supernotes, but this was the first time the US has given details. The US is seeking the extradition from the UK of Mr Garland, who denies the charges against him.
  The statement said that the "highly deceptive notes - which began to appear in worldwide circulation in or about 1989 - were manufactured in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [North Korea] and under auspices of the government and transported worldwide by North Korean individuals acting as ostensible government officials".
  The indictment comes in the context of a wider US campaign against North Korean contraband. The US accused the North, in a State Department report last year, of state-sponsored drugs trafficking. It cited the 2003 apprehension of a North Korean ship in Australian waters allegedly carrying up to 125kg (275 pounds) of heroin and allegations by defectors that North Korea was engaged in large-scale opium poppy production. And last month, the US accused a bank in Macau of laundering money for the impoverished state. [Counterfeiting] [drugs] [disinformation]
• Seoul asks for return of wartime command
  October 13, 2005 ? The Roh Moo-hyun administration took another step yesterday in its push to regain wartime control of the Korean military. That effort has been a major part of Mr. Roh's drive for military self-reliance; he has suggested that foreign control of his nation's troops in wartime was demeaning to Korea. He last spoke publicly on the issue in a speech to commemorate Korea's Armed Forces Day earlier this month. The Blue House spokesman, Kim Man-soo, announced yesterday that the administration has asked the U.S. government to begin discussions on changes to the current wartime military command structure here. Under the current procedures, the Combined Forces Command, headed by an American four-star general, would direct the operations of both U.S. and Korean troops if hostilities broke out. "The government proposed the idea at the Security Policy Initiative meeting at the end of last month," Blue House spokesman said yesterday, speaking of a U.S.-Korea military forum. He said the two governments had begun a study of the concept in January 2004, and that the study would serve as the basis for negotiations leading to a change. It was not clear, however, what Seoul wants to replace the current system. Unless the intent were to try to repel an attack on Korea by two forces under two different commands, the only alternatives would be a dual command structure or the subordination of U.S. forces under Korean command. [Sovereignty] [Friction]
• S. Korea, US Will Discuss Wartime Command Transfer
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea has proposed talks to recover wartime operational control of its military from the United States, a step necessary to building a self-reliant defense posture, Chong Wa Dae said Wednesday. During the Security Policy Initiative (SPI) meeting in Washington, D.C. last month, South Korea's delegation suggested that the two allies begin full-scale discussions on the issue, presidential spokesman Kim Man-soo said in a briefing. ``However, we've yet to receive any official response to our proposal from the U.S.,'' the spokesman said. [Sovereignty] [Friction]
• Hyde Concerned Over Anti-Americanism in Korea
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman of the House Committee on International Relations, raised concerns with the State Department last week over what he sees as alarming anti-Americanism in South Korea, according to his aide Tuesday. In a letter to Karen Hughes, recently appointed undersecretary of state for public affairs, Hyde noted that while the U.S. was downsizing its public diplomacy efforts in South Korea, North Korea was succeeding in its effective propaganda campaign. The congressman specifically referred to polls released by major South Korean dailies that indicate more youths there would take sides with North Korea than with the U.S. in the event of a war. [Anti-Americanism] [Softpower] [SK attitude NK]
• U.S. Deserter Discusses Life in N. Korea
  By MARI YAMAGUCHI The Associated Press Wednesday, October 12, 2005; 12:42 PM
  TOKYO -- First he abandoned the American military and fled across one of the world's most heavily armed borders into North Korea. Then, after living for nearly 40 years in the isolated nation, he moved to Japan and surrendered to U.S. authorities. Now U.S. Army deserter Charles Robert Jenkins has committed his four-decade odyssey to paper, publishing an autobiography titled, "To Tell the Truth."
  Former U.S. Army deserter Charles Robert Jenkins, who spent nearly 40 years in North Korea after fleeing his unit along the Demilitarized Zone, speaks to reporters in Tokyo Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2005. He opened a press conference marking publishing his book, "Confession," based on his memoirs from North Korea. (AP Photo/Sadayuki Mikami) (Sadayuki Mikami - AP) The book, which has so far only been published in Japanese by a Japanese publisher, details Jenkins' story from his youth in Rich Square, N.C., to his present life in Japan. It appeared in early October, and Jenkins says he is searching for an American publisher.
• KCNA Ridicules U.S. "Advise" over "Human Rights Issue"
  Pyongyang, October 10 (KCNA) -- The United States is busy spreading rumors about a step taken recently by the DPRK not to receive international humanitarian aid in a bid to cater to its political taste. The "Committee on North Korean Human Rights", a non-governmental human rights organization of the U.S. invited official and unofficial political figures to a seminar in Washington on September 26 to slander the system in the DPRK, claiming that the food shortage there should be viewed in linkage with "the absence of elementary human rights." The theme of the seminar "starvation and human rights" itself was intended to hurl mud at the DPRK as it was attended by representatives from such institutions of the administration as the U.S. Department of State and the Agency of International Development and institutes and NGOs exerting influence on the government's policy making including Brookings Institute. There is, therefore, no worth considering what was discussed at the seminar. What merits attention is that the seminar was ostensively aimed at the "separation of politics and humanitarianism" but, in actuality, it totally helped the U.S. implement its policy of using food aid as a lever for pressuring the DPRK. This only revealed the vulgarity and double- dealing tactics of the U.S. conservative politicians. As already officially notified to the UN and international organizations, the DPRK decided to conclude the international humanitarian aid as the humanitarian situation has remarkably improved in the country.
• S. Korea Wants to Regain Military Control
  The Associated Press Wednesday, October 12, 2005; 12:15 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea has proposed talks to take back wartime control of its military from the United States, the president's office said Wednesday. South Korea transferred control of its forces to the U.S.-led U.N. command in 1950 that helped the country repel invading communists from the North during the Korean War.
  The conflict ended in a 1953 truce, but control over the South's forces remained with an American general as chief of the U.N. command, or the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command. In 1994, South Korea regained peacetime control of its military, but the chief of U.S. forces in South Korea is still able to take control during wartime. [Sovereignty]
• US Rule Stalls S-N Phone Link
  By Kim Tae-gyu Staff Reporter Telephone connection between South Korea and the inter-Korean industrial complex in Kaesong of the North is now in limbo due to deferred approval from the United States related to its export ban on strategic items. KT, South Korea's leading fixed-line operator that is in charge of hooking up the nation to Kaesong, Sunday said cross-border phone calls could be put off to next year should the U.S. continue to procrastinate on the decision. ``We originally expected the U.S. would give the nod in September, two months after we applied for the approval in late July, but it did not,'' KT vice president Kim Byoung-ju said. He added that if the U.S. continues to hold up the process until beyond next month, KT will not be able to complete the phone link to Kaesong this year. [Sanctions] [US dominance][Friction] [Sovereignty]
• U.S. aide says Seoul did a fine job at talks
  October 10, 2005 ? Christopher Hill, the U.S. chief envoy to the six-nation talks on North Korean nuclear issues, tried to calm ruffled feelings in Seoul yesterday over reports of remarks attributed to him critical of Seoul's six-party talks diplomacy. In an e-mail to journalists here, Mr. Hill said, "There has been much unfounded speculation beginning with a report in the Japanese press about some off-the-record remarks I made last week in Washington at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. What is off the record will remain off the record but ? I believe the ROK government played a very vital and helpful role in achieving agreement." The original reports said Mr. Hill was unhappy with Seoul's advocacy of a nuclear reactor for the North and a proposed invitation for Pyongyang to attend a high-level conference in Busan next month. [Friction] [Six Party talks] [Sovereignty]
• Seoul scotches a bid to have North at APEC
  October 08, 2005 ? A senior government official said yesterday that Seoul would not press a proposal officials here had floated earlier to invite a North Korean delegation to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings here next month. The annual meeting of APEC heads of state will be held in Busan on Nov. 18-19. The comments may have soothed some irritation in Washington, which opposed the suggestion. In private comments earlier this week designed to reach the ears of Seoul officials, Christopher Hill called the idea "inappropriate." He is the chief U.S. negotiator at the six-party talks on North Korean nuclear programs. Unification Minister Chung Dong-young first raised the idea in testimony to the National Assembly on Sept. 22, where he linked an invitation to further progress in those six-way talks. [Friction] [US dominance] [Peace efforts] [Sovereignty]
• Seoul Denies Report on US Displeasure With Role in Talks
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter South Korea's alliance with the United States is as strong ever and a Japanese newspaper's report on Washington's displeasure with Seoul's role in the six-party talks is groundless, a high- ranking Seoul official said on Friday. His remarks came as Sankei Shimbun, a conservative daily in Japan, reported that Christopher Hill, Washington's top envoy to the denuclearization talks, criticized Seoul for not being ``helpful'' during the fourth round of talks, which produced a joint statement of principles on Sept. 19. ``As far as we know, the daily's report on three things in the controversy is not true at all,'' the official said on condition of anonymity. Hill's complaints reportedly stemmed from three episodes: South Korea's announcement of a plan for economic cooperation programs with North Korea right after the end of the multilateral talks; Seoul's invitation for Pyongyang to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Pusan next month; and a leak from Seoul about Hill's interest in a visit to Pyongyang. [Friction] [US Dominance] [Peace efforts] [Sovereignty]
• South, North Korean Students Invited to US Home Stay Program
  By Lee Hyo-sik Staff Reporter An American nonprofit organization plans to bring high school students of the two Koreas together in the U.S. to help promote peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula, its head said Thursday. ``I am currently working on various ways to bring together high school students from both Koreas for a camp program in the U.S. to help them understand one another and broaden their perspectives on the world,'' Thomas Areton, president of Cultural Homestay International (CHI), said in an interview with The Korea Times.
• USFK Denies War Stocks in Disrepair
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The United States Forces Korea (USFK) said Thursday that U.S. military war stocks are now in good shape as problems have been addressed, denying a recent report that most of the U.S. war equipment here was in need of repair.
• US Reluctant to Use Term 'East Sea'
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The United States still maintains it would be difficult for some time to accept South Korea's name for waters between it and Japan, a delegation from Seoul said Wednesday. [Friction] [SK-Japan relations]
• Term of probation ends for Korean spy in U.S.
  October 06, 2005 ? WASHINGTON ? Robert Kim, a Korean-American who served a prison term in the United States on charges of spying for South Korea, was freed from probation on Tuesday. In 1996, while serving as a civilian computer expert for the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, Mr. Kim was convicted of handing over classified information to a South Korean Navy attache. The information, according to Mr. Kim's autobiography, was on North Korea. Sentenced to nine years in prison, Mr. Kim was released last year, after serving seven years and 10 months, under conditions of three-year surveillance and confinement to Washington D.C. and the states of Virginia and Maryland. [Espionage] [Friction]
• Robert Kim Can Leave US
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter
  Robert Kim Robert Kim, a Korean-American civilian computer expert who was imprisoned for passing classified documents of the U.S. Navy to South Korea, has been released from probation. This is his first taste of freedom in nine years and eight months. After serving seven years and six months in prison, he was put on a 27-month probation in June last year.
  Earlier this year, Kim tried to visit South Korea to pay tribute at his parents' cemeteries as his father died in February last year and his mother in July. Kim applied for approval via the court in Virginia for a short trip to Korea at the end of last year. But the court rejected it in January. Shortly after Kim's 90-year-old father died, South Korea's National Assembly Speaker sent an official letter to U.S. Speaker of the House, urging him to help the U.S. citizen attend his father's funeral in South Korea. The request was turned down and Kim's wife came to South Korea to attend the funeral of her husband's father. She brought with her an audiotape containing a farewell message from her husband.
  Despite his wrongdoings, Kim has won wide sympathy and support among many South Koreans. Internet fan clubs have been formed and prayer meetings have been held to support him. Critics have argued that the information Kim provided should not be categorized as classified as it was widely reported by the media at that time. The secrets he sent to Seoul were related with an infiltration of a North Korean submarine to the East Sea in 1996. The information delivered by Kim to Seoul included the North's frontline troop disposition. [Espionage] [Friction]
• Spy Probe Widens to Years Suspect Was at White House
  Ex-Marine Allegedly Sent Files to Philippine Opposition By Dan Eggen and Alan Sipress Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, October 6, 2005; Page A01
  The Justice Department is investigating whether a naturalized U.S. citizen from the Philippines stole classified documents while he worked in the office of Vice President Cheney and provided the information to opposition politicians in Manila, Bush administration officials said yesterday. {Espionage]
• Defense Analyst Guilty in Israeli Espionage Case
  By Jerry Markon Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, October 6, 2005; Page A02
  A Defense Department analyst pleaded guilty yesterday to passing government secrets to two employees of a pro-Israel lobbying group and revealed for the first time that he also gave classified information directly to an Israeli government official in Washington. Lawrence A. Franklin told a judge in U.S. District Court in Alexandria that he met at least eight times with Naor Gilon, who was the political officer at the Israeli Embassy before being recalled last summer.
  The guilty plea and Franklin's account appeared to cast doubt on long-standing denials by Israeli officials that they engage in any intelligence activities in the United States. The possibility of continued Israeli spying in Washington has been a sensitive subject between the two governments since Jonathan J. Pollard, a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, admitted to spying for Israel in 1987 and was sentenced to life in prison. [Espionage]
• USFK Denies Additional Troop Cuts
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The United States Forces Korea (USFK) said Tuesday it does not have any plan to further reduce the number of its troops after 2008, dismissing news reports on additional troops cuts in line with South Korea's military reform plan. ``The reports are false. The USFK will reduce forces here to 25,000 by 2008 per announced agreement. No further troops reduction is planned,'' Col. Franklin Childress, spokesman for the USFK, told The Korea Times.
• Disrepair Cited in U.S. Arms
  Much of War Gear in S. Korea Was Not 'Fully Mission Capable'
  By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, October 5, 2005; Page A20
  Critical U.S. military war stocks in South Korea -- including M1A1 tanks, howitzers and Bradley Fighting Vehicles -- fell into such significant disrepair in the past year that it could have slowed a U.S. ground response to North Korean hostilities or another Pacific conflict, unreleased classified and unclassified U.S. government reports show. Problems included faulty engines and transmissions and cracked gun tubes, with some tanks requiring more than 1,000 hours of maintenance to fix fully -- a condition that would have delayed for days their use in a conflict, reports by the Government Accountability Office and Army officials say.
  But even after government inspectors found, starting in October 2004, that at least half and as much as 80 percent of the heavy weapons and other fighting gear were not "fully mission capable," inaccurate military reports led the Pentagon and Congress to believe that readiness was high.
  The gap in military readiness in South Korea -- which the Pentagon and the Army said they have since fixed -- occurred as the Defense Department was hard-pressed to field equipment for war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. military has pulled large amounts of hardware for those operations from stockpiles it maintains worldwide, and until recently the South Korean cache was the biggest single overseas store of Army combat material remaining, a GAO report completed last month but not yet released said. [Incompetence] [US military]
• Korea Peace Day 2005 Statement
  With renewed tensions once again raising the specter of war on the Korean peninsula, the Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea (ASCK), an organization of scholars working in the United States and other countries who are concerned with U.S. policies towards the Korean peninsula, declares November 10, 2005 to be Korea Peace Day. On this day we call upon all concerned people and organizations to join together on college and university campuses throughout the United States to express a commitment to a peaceful resolution of the on-going tensions between the U.S. and North Korea (DPRK).
• Wartime army control
  [EDITORIAL]
  Indications are the government will soon raise the question of getting full operational control of the Korean armed forces back from the U.N. Command, probably in the next annual security consultative meeting with top U.S. military leaders slated for later this month in Seoul. President Roh Moo-hyun, who has mentioned the military operational control issue in connection with the task of achieving "independent armed forces" several times since his inauguration, once again referred to it in his Oct. 1 Armed Forces Day address. Already, the question of Korea's recovering wartime operational control over its military forces from the commander of the U.S. Forces in Korea, concurrently the head of the U.N. Command, was put on the agenda of the "Future of the Alliance Initiatives" talks between Korean and U.S. officials in 2003, but there have been no substantial discussions. Since President Syngman Rhee voluntarily offered the command of the Korean armed forces to Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who had just assumed the command of the hurriedly established U.N. Forces in the early stage of the Korean War in 1950, the U.S. operational control over Korean forces had two practical meanings: the U.S. responsibility for the defense of the Republic of Korea and the assurance of the presence of U.S. forces in Korea. However, it has been a perennial domestic political issue as independent-minded Korean politicians regarded it as a system of "subjugation."
  The security situation here remains fluid with the problem of North Korean nuclear arms development lingering over the peninsula. And now is hardly an opportune time to direct our attention to the subject of military operational control, although it certainly is a matter that should be settled some time between the two allies. President Roh himself recognizes that it is a long-term issue as he pegs it on the goal of a self-reliant military. Repeated presidential references to the question could only spur public sentiment toward negative views on the alliance with the U.S. [US military dominance] [Friction] [Pro-Americanism] [Sovereignty]
• S. Korea, US Navies Confident of Meeting Regional Challenges
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter
  The commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet stressed Saturday that the South Korean and U.S. militaries maintain an ``extraordinarily strong'' alliance capable of meeting any challenges in Northeast Asia, including North Korea's nuclear threat. In an exclusive interview with The Korea Times at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, Adm. Gary Roughead, 54, also praised the South Korean Navy's increasing capabilities with the modernization of its ships and submarine systems. ``I can tell you that the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the U.S. Navy and the Republic of Korean (ROK) Navy operate very efficiently together. I'm confident that our navies together are capable of meeting any challenges that could be posed,'' said Roughead, who arrived here last Thursday for a three-day visit. [Military balance] [US military dominance]{Threat]
• S. Korea Wants Wartime Command Back From United States: Roh
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter
  President Roh Moo-hyun delivers a speech during a ceremony marking the nation's 57th Armed Forces Day at the Kyeryongdae military headquarters near Taejon, about 170 kilometers south of Seoul, Saturday. / Yonhap South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on Saturday renewed his determination to make the nation's military forces more self-reliant, saying they should get wartime military command back from its ally, the United States, sometime in the near future. Stressing the self-defense capability of the nation's armed forces at a ceremony marking the 57th Armed Forces Day at Kyeryongdae military compound near Taejon, Roh said self-reliance could be achieved through the Seoul's exercise of wartime command and control. Since the 1950-53 Korean War, in which China and Russia backed the communist North and the U.S. and its allies supported the capitalist South under the United Nations Command (UNC), the U.S. has had military command in the South. South Korea regained peacetime command of its troops in 1994, but the U.S. still reserves the right to command South Korean forces if a war breaks out. Roh repeatedly talked about the importance of returning wartime command to Seoul and a self-reliant defense posture
  Earlier last month, the Defense Ministry announced a set of reform measures which, among other things, would raise annual military spending by an average of 11 percent and cut the nation's 680,000 troops by one-fourth by 2020. [US military dominance] [Military balance] [Friction] [Sovereignty]

• US Freezes Property of 3 N. Korean Companies
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The United States froze the assets of three North Korean companies in June as they were allegedly involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry in Seoul said Monday. Assets, totaling $31.7 million, of the Choson Mining Trade Company, Choson Ryonbong General Company and Danchong Commercial Bank have been frozen since July 1 when Executive Order 13382 came into effect, the ministry said in a report to Rep. Kim Won-wung of the ruling Uri Party. The three companies were allegedly responsible for importing and exporting the missile parts. The amount of North Korean assets are the fourth largest to be frozen, following $1.24 billion from Libya, $192 million from Cuba and $82.2 million from Iran, the report said. [Sanctions]
• N. Korea Seeks Visit by Top U.S. Official
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ North Korea is seeking a visit by a high-profile U.S. figure in an effort to jump-start relations between the two countries, a South Korean intelligence source said Friday. Leader Kim Jong-il personally mentioned the names of U.S. President George W. Bush, his father and former President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as one of those U.S. figures who would be welcomed in the North, said the source, requesting anonymity.
• Cheney Set for Surgery to Repair Bulge in an Artery
  By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN Published: September 24, 2005 Vice President Dick Cheney is to undergo a medical procedure today to address a condition that if left untreated could lead to the loss of a leg.
  On Sept. 16, Mr. Cheney's office said he would be undergoing a procedure electively, under local anesthesia, so his aneurysms would "not become a problem over time." That statement suggested that the vice president had not experienced any symptoms from the aneurysms, since if he had, treatment would have been performed much sooner, vascular surgeons not connected with his case said in interviews.
• Seoul Open to Alternative to Screen Quota System
  By Kim Jae-kyoung Korea Times Correspondent
  WASHINGTON, D.C. _ South Korea's top economic policymaker said Thursday that Seoul is open to any suggestions that may change its screen quota system, a major target of criticism by the U.S. for allegedly blocking Hollywood's greater access to the Korean market and standing in the way of a closer bilateral trade relationship. [culture war] [Hallyu] [Friction]
• ROK-US Defense Chiefs' Talks Due
  The defense chiefs of South Korea and the U.S. will meet Oct. 21 to discuss their countries' combined deterrence against communist North Korea, the Defense Ministry said Thursday. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is scheduled to fly to Seoul for the annual South Korean-U.S. defense ministerial talks, ministry officials said. {Joint US military} [Threat] [US military dominance]
• Majority opposes U.S. troop presence
  September 22, 2005 ? A majority of Koreans now want U.S. forces to withdraw from this country, a recent survey by the JoongAng Ilbo showed. According to the poll, commissioned on the newspaper's 40th anniversary, 54 percent of respondents wanted the G.I.s out. The proportion of Koreans opposed to a U.S. military presence here has increased steadily over the past three years. Just under 4 percent of the respondents said they wanted a quick, complete pullout, but about a quarter favored a more gradual withdrawal. Only 16 percent of the respondents said they wanted U.S. troops to stay here permanently, and another 30 percent said they hoped the American forces would be here "for a considerable period of time." In parallel with that sentiment, fewer Koreans see North Korea as a military threat to this country; three years ago, half of Koreans were worried about a North Korean provocation, but this year the proportion dropped to 42 percent. [SK attitude NK] [Anti-Americanism]
• First American tourists in 3 years raise the curtain on North Korea's Mass Games.
  Press release - from Koryo Tours , Beijing 21 September 2005
  Due to 13 years of running tours to North Korea (DPRK) Koryo Tours have been given exclusive access for US citizens (American passport holders) to visit North Korea for this year's mass games Arirang festival. The festival began on August 16th and its finish date has been extended to Oct 17th. US citizens will be allowed into the country for October only and only for a limited period. There have only been two opportunities for US citizens to visit North Korea as tourists, (1995 and 2002 for mass game festivals when Koryo took over 100 US tourists to DPRK). After Oct 17th US citizens will once again be unable to obtain DPRK visas.
  This is an opportunity to see the least visited country on earth and experience Arirang Mass Games - the biggest choreographed socialist realism spectacular on earth. Arirang 2005 has been performed in the May Day stadium (capacity 150,000) every night since August 16th and know one knows when the next one will be...
• U.S. teams here to help guard APEC
  September 21, 2005 ? Because of the possibility of a terror attack at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Busan in November, the United States has dispatched a 20-man anti- terror unit to coordinate with South Korean officials on security issues. The APEC summit meeting is expected to draw 21 heads of state and 15,000 government officials and businessmen from around the Pacific Rim. A knowledgeable official said yesterday that the U.S. anti-terror team has already been deployed in the Seoul and Busan areas and that an additional 100 security agents would be sent to Korea by early November. [US military dominance]
• Roh and Bush bask in glow of 'first step' on weapons
  September 21, 2005 ? President Roh Moo-hyun called U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday evening to tell him the breakthrough agreement at the six-nation talks was "based on the trust between South Korea and the United States." Mr. Roh also praised the U.S. delegation's flexibility in the 20-minute telephone conversation. After the call, the Blue House spokesman, Kim Man-soo, said both men agreed that the agreement is a good beginning of efforts to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons. [in denial]
• Gen. Bell Nominated as New USFK Chief
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter U.S. President George W. Bush has nominated Gen. Burwell B. Bell, commander of U.S. ground troops in Europe, to replace Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, chief of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), the USFK said Tuesday. ``Gen. Bell will replace Gen. LaPorte at a date to be determined in early 2006,'' the USFK said in a statement
• MacArthur Statue to Stay, Seoul Tells US
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter South Korea's top diplomat has reassured Washington that a controversial statue of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the U.S. commander in the Korean War (1950-53), will be protected from anti-American protestors. Ban Ki-moon, minister of foreign affairs and trade, sent a letter to Henry Hyde, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations, saying the statue of MacArthur is here to stay.
• President Roh Says US-NK Relations Necessary
  By Ryu Jin Korea Times Correspondent NEW YORK _ President Roh Moo-hyun has called for the normalization of relations between North Korea and the United States. In a speech at a dinner hosted by the Korea Society on Friday (Korean standard time), Roh said, ``Normalization of relations between North Korea and the United States is necessary to fundamentally resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.'' The underlying problem of the North Korean nuclear issue is the hostility spawned from the Cold War, he said Roh opposed any bid to increase the number of permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to the detriment of the many smaller countries. [Normalisation]
• From Reagan to Clinton: U.S. Policy on NK
  Ahead of another round in six-way talks with North Korea, Nsarchive.org reviews key U.S. documents (c)2005 Yonhap Washington D.C. August 23, 2005 -- Next week, if all goes according to plan, the United States will resume six-party talks with North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia and host nation China on the issue of North Korea's nuclear program. The parties are trying to reach agreement on a set of principles to guide negotiations that will lead to the dismantling of Pyongyang's nuclear program and the threat it poses of a destabilizing North Korean nuclear weapons arsenal. This will be the fifth round of these talks, which were initiated at the invitation of China in 2003 to address the crisis created in October 2002 when U.S. envoy James Kelly accused the DPRK of violating the terms of the 1994 Framework Agreement that was supposed to halt that nation's nuclear weapons program in exchange for provision of light water reactors to North Korea to meet its growing need for energy. Since 2002, North Korea has withdrawn from the NPT and earlier this year claimed to have nuclear weapons, the number of which has been placed at six by U.S. and other intelligence sources.[1]
• Envoy Speaks Out on North Korea Aid
  By BARRY SCHWEID The Associated Press Thursday, September 8, 2005; 11:51 PM
  WASHINGTON -- President Bush's newly appointed envoy on human rights abuses in North Korea suggested Thursday that U.S. food aid might be linked to liberating political prisoners. Despite sharp differences with the insular Pyongyang regime, the Bush administration has provided tons of American food to hungry people in North Korea on humanitarian grounds.
  In announcing donation of more than 55,000 tons of food last June, a State Department spokesman, for instance, said "our decisions are made on humanitarian considerations solely." But Jay Lefkowitz, the new envoy, suggested Thursday at a news conference that approach might be changing. [Aid weapon]
• Helping hand from an ally [photo]
  Korean Red Cross relief goods for victims of Hurricane Katrina being loaded on a cargo flight yesterday at Incheon International Airport.
• Inchon landing
  In memory of Inchon landing: Korean and U.S. soldiers as well as officials of Inchon City throw flowers into the sea to pay tribute to soldiers killed during the Inchon amphibious landing in 1950, off Wolmi Island, Inchon, Thursday. The nation marked the 55th anniversary of the landing of U.S. troops commanded by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. [photo] [Role of SK military]
• Spotlight on the North Korean Human Rights Act: Correcting Misperceptions
  by Balbina Y. Hwang Backgrounder #1823 February 10, 2005 |
  In October, both houses of Congress unanimously passed and President George W. Bush signed the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004.1 This act promotes improving human rights in North Korea as an integral part of broader U.S. policy on the Korean peninsula, and it also calls for protecting North Korean defectors as refugees. Surprisingly, the most vocal criticism has come not from North Korea, but from South Korea. Some members of South Korea's ruling Uri Party were indignant, claiming that the new law would increase tensions on the Korean peninsula and damage relations between South Korea and North Korea. Such sentiments, regrettably prevalent in South Korea, indicate how much some people have misunderstood the act and its purpose. [Friction] [Human rights]
• The Korea-U.S. Alliance and the North Korean Nuclear Issue : Recent Developments and Next Steps
  Hong Seok-hyun, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the United States
  KEI Opinion Leaders Forum Washington, DC, July 8, 2005
  President Lee Kyung-tae, President Joseph Winder, Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate the opportunity to meet with this distinguished group, because I know each of you has a genuine interest in what has also become my main "mission in life": enhancing Korea-U.S. relations.
• Roh, in U.S., says Incheon statue stays
  September 15, 2005 ? NEW YORK ? President Roh Moo-hyun, addressing the Korean community in New York just after his arrival here Wednesday afternoon, praised the strength of U.S.-Korea ties. "When I first took office," Mr. Roh said, "many people said they were worried about the South Korea-U.S. alliance. Some who disliked me said that I would make trouble. But South Korea-U.S. relations are good." Mr. Roh also repeated that the statue of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur in Incheon should stay put, despite sometimes-violent attempts by left- wing groups to force its removal. But he seemed to say that the reason it should stay where it is was U.S. sensitivities about the stature of the general, a leader of United Nations forces here during the Korean War. "The statue has to stay, remembered as a part of history. Both good and bad parts of history must be remembered as they are." To applause from his audience, Mr. Roh continued, "We must not do something that insults other people simply because of differences in perception and the evaluation of history." Mr. Roh also stressed the need for Korea to "fulfill its responsibilities as an independent nation, saying all we have to say, based on mutual respect." [Anti-Americanism]
• President Roh Backs American War Hero
  President Says Gen. MacArthur Is Part of Korea's History
  By Ryu Jin Korea Times Correspondent
  Police stand guard over the statue of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Inchon. NEW YORK _ President Roh Moo-hyun Wednesday expressed objections to demands by progressive groups at home to demolish a statue of U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Inchon, west of Seoul. In a meeting with Korean residents of New York, Roh, emphasizing the South Korea-U.S. alliance, said Gen. MacArthur is ``part of our history'' and added that it would be undesirable if it were not respected as such. ``We should not manage the South Korea-U.S. relationship in such a way as to pull down the statue,'' he said. ``We should not insult people just because we have different perceptions and evaluations of history.'' [Anti-Americanism]
• Envoy Speaks Out on North Korea Aid
  By BARRY SCHWEID The Associated Press Thursday, September 8, 2005; 11:51 PM
  WASHINGTON -- President Bush's newly appointed envoy on human rights abuses in North Korea suggested Thursday that U.S. food aid might be linked to liberating political prisoners. Despite sharp differences with the insular Pyongyang regime, the Bush administration has provided tons of American food to hungry people in North Korea on humanitarian grounds.
  In announcing donation of more than 55,000 tons of food last June, a State Department spokesman, for instance, said "our decisions are made on humanitarian considerations solely." But Jay Lefkowitz, the new envoy, suggested Thursday at a news conference that approach might be changing. "I think consistent with what the president's overall approach is on human rights, and bringing North Korea directly into the community of nations, we have to take a look at all different areas of our relationship." [Aid weapon]
• North Korea Hints at Returning USS Pueblo
  By WILLIAM C. MANN The Associated Press Wednesday, September 7, 2005; 10:24 AM
  WASHINGTON -- Negotiations to eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons remain in limbo, but the North Koreans are giving hints they might be ready to end another lingering problem with the United States by returning the captured spy ship USS Pueblo.
• Rodong Sinmun on "Anti-Terrorism War"
  Pyongyang, September 13 (KCNA) -- The last four years during which the U.S. "anti-terrorism war" has been fought have laid bare its unjust, deceptive and reactionary nature because it has been nothing helpful to ensuring global peace and social progress, Rodong Sinmun Tuesday observes in a signed article. Why is the issue of terrorism getting more serious and knotty in this century than the last century and who is chiefly to blame for posing a grave threat to the global peace and stability and disturbing them? The article queries, and continues: The policy of military high-handedness and hegemony aimed to dominate and oppress other countries and nations is the main cause of creating and increasing the world-wide instability and fear of terrorism. The U.S. is chiefly to blame for this. As the shocking September 11 incident occurred in the U.S. four years ago, it took the opportunity of declaring a war against terrorism under the pretext of ensuring peace and security in its mainland and the rest of the world. When the "anti-terrorism war" began, the U.S. ruling quarters claimed that it was aimed at "making the world safer". But the reality is quite contrary to it
• Controversy over statue envelops politicians
  September 13, 2005 ? Reacting to the brawls over the General MacArthur statue last weekend, the Blue House said it regretted the controversy, calling it "no help for friendly U.S.-South Korean relations." Choi In-ho, a Blue House press officer, said, "The illegal attempt to remove the statue also is counter to the mature historical consciousness of our society. We hope this won't happen again." A rally in Incheon's Freedom Park Sunday led to more than 20 casualties as activists wielding bamboo sticks and rocks clashed with riot police. The activists want the statue of the American general, who led the United Nations forces in a landing at Incheon harbor during the Korean War, removed from the spot where his forces came ashore. Conservatives and Korean War veterans are bitterly opposed. The statue has become a symbol of the divide between the Korean left wing and conservatives. [Anti-Americanism] [Pro-Americanism]
• Travelers to the U.S. asked for more data
  September 13, 2005 ? The Transportation Ministry and airlines said yesterday that travelers to the United States will be required to list an exact U.S. address as a condition of entering that country effective Oct. 4. New U.S. prescreening procedures for entry there imposed as a reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in New York and Washington will require incoming passengers to provide an address, including a ZIP code, when they purchase airline tickets to the United States and its territories. Visitors who cannot provide the required information will be unable to purchase tickets. Travelers with more than one destination must provide at least one detailed address. U.S. citizens, permanent residents and transit passengers who will be in the United States for less than eight hours will not be subject to the new requirements.
• U.S. State Department's Report Attacking DPRK Refuted
  Pyongyang, September 12 (KCNA) -- The U.S. Department of State in its recent report unreasonably listed the DPRK as a state violating the convention banning biological weapons. The report asserted that the DPRK, which acceded to the convention, presented a "false report" on its compliance with the convention to the U.N. while persistently developing biological weapons. In this regard Rodong Sinmun Monday says in a signed commentary: The U.S. mud-slinging was nothing but a plot to isolate the DPRK in the international arena by bringing all sorts of charges to it and justify its policy to stifle the DPRK. The commentary cites facts to prove that the United States has been accustomed to deliberately and systematically violating various international conventions on disarmament including the convention banning biological weapons. [WMD]
• North Korea Hints at Returning USS Pueblo
  By WILLIAM C. MANN, Associated Press Writer Wed Sep 7,10:24 AM ET WASHINGTON - Negotiations to eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons remain in limbo, but the North Koreans are giving hints they might be ready to end another lingering problem with the United States by returning the captured spy ship USS Pueblo.
  They are setting an unlikely condition, though, considering hostile U.S.-North Korean relations: a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or another top-level American official. "It would be a gesture, but somebody needs to make a gesture," said Donald Gregg, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea who brought home the offer after a mid-August trip to North Korea.

• Truth Behind American 'Noble Lies'
  By Kim Ki-tae Staff Reporter
  The neo-conservatives' aggressive foreign policy has not always won the heart of people around the globe. The image of U.S. president George W. Bush often becomes an object of mockery for those who oppose the American intervention. Reuters-Yonhap When U.S. president George W. Bush was re-elected last year, he suggested ``regime change'' and ``regime transformation'' as the nation's strategic aim for North Korea. Many Korean diplomatic experts and policymakers had diverging interpretations of the terms. Some said they only meant a leadership change in the North, while others interpreted it to mean more radical and structural change. In ``Leo Strauss,'' the author Park Sung-rae, a Korea Broadcasting System reporter, claims that even Korea's top diplomat Ban Ki-moon incorrectly interpreted the terms by downplaying their implications. Park notes that the words meant the Bush administration was actually warning that they will not only change the North's leadership, but also overhaul its political, economic and social systems. And the author suggests that to understand the lexicon of the Bush administration, or to be more precise, the hawkish neo-cons, Korea needs to pay heed to a hidden guru behind the present U.S. ruling elite; Leo Strauss (1899-1973). According to Park, the late political philosopher gives insight on the diplomatic policy of the U.S. administration and its characteristic rhetoric, including the phrases ``axis of evil' and `outposts of tyranny.'' Park says that Strauss is the `godfather of neo- cons'' and traces the origins of his thinking. Born in Hessen, Germany, Strauss was heavily influenced by the 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who proclaimed modern reason killed God.
• DPRK Condemns U.S. for Deployment of Stealth Fighters in South Korea
  Rodong Sinmun denounced the U.S. for deployment of 15 F-117 Stealth fighter-bombers and for maintenance personnel to this purpose in South Korea in its signed commentary on June 3, saying that the introduction proved that the U.S. plan for a preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK had reached the phase of military action, which no longer remained on the table.
  article read as follows. The introduction of 15 F-117 Stealth fighter- bombers and 250 maintenance personnel into South Korea from the U.S. mainland proves that the U.S. plan for a preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK has reached the phase of military action, no longer remaining on the table.
• Re-writing the Past/ Re-Claiming the Future: Nationalism and the Politics of Anti-Americanism in South Korea
  By Sheila Miyoshi Jager
  [Japan Focus 4 August 2005]
  The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 led to one of history's worst atrocities. Known as the Taejon massacre, an estimated 5000 to 7500 civilian deaths have been attributed to a single incident committed by the North Korean People's Army (NKPA) in late September 1950. The incident, described as "worthy of being recorded in the annals of history along with the Rape of Nanking, the Warsaw Ghetto, and other similar mass exterminations" in the official United States Army report issued at the end of the war, received extensive coverage in the international press which touted it as evidence of North Korean barbarity. (1) It was not until 1992, nearly 40 years after the event, that a South Korean journalist began to uncover new evidence which suggested that rather than a single massacre occurring in late September 1950 by the NKPA, there had actually been two massacres-the NKPA killings in September that occurred just before the city was re-taken by United Nations forces and an earlier massacre that had been committed in July by South Korean forces just before the NKPA attacked the city in its initial bid to unify the peninsula. In other words, what had been described as a single atrocity committed by the North Koreans was actually part of an unfolding pair of massacres that began when South Koreans forces executed thousands of suspected leftists and political prisoners just before fleeing southward in July ahead of the advancing NKPA troops. The earlier July massacre appears simply to have been erased from the annals of official U.S. and South Korean histories of the war. [Human rights] [Evidence]
• DPRK Urges U.S. to Stop Calling Pyongyang "Outpost of Tyranny
  Pyongyang Notes Bush's "Mr. Kim Jong Il" Comment A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry on June 3 gave an answer to a question put by the KCNA as regards U.S. President Bush's remarks about the Korean issue made at a press conference. Bush was reported to have called Kim Jong Il by the courtesy title "Mr.," at a press conference held at the White House on May 31. The spokesman said that Bush "politely addressed our headquarters of revolution," adding that Pyongyang "takes note of this." The spokesman also said that Bush's remarks would help create an atmosphere for the six-party talks, if it puts an end to the scramble between the hawkish group and the moderate group in the U.S., saying that the scramble has thrown the Korean policy into a state of confusion. "Pyongyang will closely follow Bush's remarks if his words would not change day and night as this happened in the past." If the U.S. truly wants a peaceful solution to the nuclear issue, the spokesman said that the U.S. should make a bold decision to withdraw its remarks "an outpost of tyranny" so as to remove the biggest hurdle lying in the way of resuming the six-party talks. [Vituperation]
• KPA Blames U.S. for Suspending Joint Excavation Work for MIA
  The Korean People's Army blamed the U.S. for suspending the joint excavation activities for the remains of U.S. soldiers that had been underway under the arrangement between the KPA and the U.S. Department of Defense. A spokesman of the Panmunjom mission of the KPA issued a statement on June 1 in response to the decision of the U.S. DOD to suspend the search operation.
• KOREA FOUNDATION AND KOREA SOCIETY
  The Dong-Ah Ilbo, July 22, 2005
  American Research Institutes Receive Funding from Korea Foundation The Korea Foundation, a semi-public institute in Korea, provided funding to 14 U.S. research institutes last year (see table). The total sum comes to $1,774,000. [Softpower]
• US Expert Questions NK's Intentions Toward South
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter
  North Korea may be building up its nuclear weapons capabilities to pursue unification with the South by force, according to a U.S. military analyst. Andrew Scobell, a research professor at the U.S. Army's Strategic Studies Institute, presented the evaluation in a paper published last month to provide advice to Washington's military leaders on handling the North's nuclear threat. [Bizarre]
• New U.S. Command in Japan Would Handle Korean Emergency
  A new U.S. Army command to be set up at Camp Zama in Japan would assume charge in an emergency on the Korean Peninsula, the Daily Yomiuri reported Monday. The command, a "UEX" under new acronymic U.S. forces nomenclature, is smaller than the Washington-based Army First Corps command initially considered for the move to the camp in Kanagawa Prefecture, and combines the functions of a division and army corps. Internal forces restructuring aims to make such units smaller than existing army corps headquarters but more mobile and flexible.
  The Pentagon initially planned to give the First Corps headquarters operational command over what it calls the "arc of instability" including the Far East, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. But Tokyo objected saying to command forces in the Middle East from the island country would violate Article 6 of the U.S.-Japan security treaty, which limits operational command of the U.S. Forces in Japan to the Far East only.
  The daily said direct command of the UEX would be limited to an emergency on the Korean Peninsula, while the China-Taiwan "hot zone" and conflicts in Southeast Asia included in the "arc of instability" would come under the command of the Third Marine Expeditionary Force based in Okinawa. However, in any Korean emergency U.S. Marine units in Okinawa would come under the operational command of the UEX.
  The move seems intended to strengthen the USFJ and will likely entail reorganization of the U.S. Forces in Korea. USFK command could be merged with the USFJ's or taken down a peg to be put under USFJ control. [US military dominance]
• At State, Rice Takes Control of Diplomacy
  Secretary Summons 'Practical Idealism'
  By Robin Wright and Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, July 31, 2005; Page A01
  Three weeks after taking office, Condoleezza Rice hosted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and their Japanese counterparts at the State Department. When Rumsfeld began to speak, Rice gently cut him off. The message was clear: I'll take the lead, Don. Both Japanese and U.S. officials noted the decisive nudge. Now six months on the job, Rice has clearly wrested control of U.S. foreign policy. The once heavy-handed Defense Department still weighs in, but Rice wins most battles -- in strong contrast to her predecessor, Colin L. Powell. White House staff is consulted, but Rice designed the distinctive framework for the administration's second-term foreign policy.
  Condoleezza Rice's mix of aggressive diplomacy and pragmatism is illustrated by her efforts to end the seemingly intractable conflicts in Sudan, Africa's largest country, where millions have died or been displaced by a series of civil wars.
  In short order, she has demonstrated a willingness to bend on tactics to accommodate the concerns of allies without ceding on broad principles, what she calls "practical idealism." She also conducts a more aggressive personal diplomacy, breaking State Department records for foreign travel and setting up diplomatic tag teams with top staff on urgent issues.
  On North Korea, Rice got the prickly Pyongyang government back to six-nation talks last week on nuclear disarmament by publicly recognizing it as a "sovereign state," then empowering her top aide on East Asia to repeatedly meet privately with the North Koreans -- extended contact forbidden during Powell's era.
  In the interview, Rice said she discovered on her first European trip that, particularly on the Iran issue, "somehow we'd gotten into a position where it was the United States that was the problem . . . that was not a good place to be." So she formulated action that put the onus back on Iran and, later, North Korea.

• Bolton Not Truthful, 36 Senators Charge in Opposing Appointment
  By STEVEN R. WEISMAN Published: July 30, 2005 WASHINGTON, July 29 - Charging that John R. Bolton was "not truthful" in answering questions about his record, 36 senators urged President Bush on Friday not to make a recess appointment of Mr. Bolton as United Nations ambassador after the Senate's failure to confirm him for that job. But one Republican official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the president has not announced his decision, said Mr. Bush would probably appoint Mr. Bolton next week.
• US Fund to Help NK Refugees
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The U.S. Congress has mandated the creation of a government fund to help North Korean refugees in its appropriations bill for next year, a step pressuring the reluctant administration to help refugees from the communist state.
• North Korea seeks new trophy
  On the Daedong River in Pyongyang, the U.S.S. Pueblo is on display. How would Americans feel to see this ship in the North Korean capital? It could arouse feelings of humiliation and anger. The Pueblo seems to have given quite an impression to Nicholas D. Kristof, a New York Times columnist, during his recent visit to Pyongyang. It may have been because of the obsession often manifest in writers that "everything in sight is something to write about," but whatever the reason, he wrote a column after seeing the Pueblo. The Pueblo, the armed spy ship that was seized by North Korea on Jan. 23, 1968, is a symbol of humiliation for the U.S. Navy. It was the first Navy vessel to be captured by a foreign military in peacetime in the history of the U.S. Navy. North Korea contended that the capture was warranted because the Pueblo invaded its territorial waters. The United States rebutted that the seizure was North Korea's military provocation, saying that at the moment of its capture, the Pueblo was in international waters 40 kilometers off Wonsan port on the country's east coast.
  A week later, the United States and North Korea entered negotiations on an equal footing. After 10 months of tug-of-war negotiations, the United States admitted its invasion on the territorial waters and apologized to North Korea.
  A fourth round of the six-party talks is being held in Beijing today. Diplomatic negotiations are a war unaccompanied by arms. Denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula are the booty of the 21st century that North Korea can capture through the six-party talks. *The writer is an international affairs writer for the JoongAng Ilbo. by Bae Myung-bok
• Roh in Quandary Over New Ambassador to Washington
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter After Hong Seok-hyun offered to resign as ambassador to the United States on Tuesday, Chong Wa Dae commenced work to find a replacement. Yet, for President Roh Moo-hyun, it is not an easy task to select one that would meet his expectations as well as those of the U.S. [Friction]
• Bush Administration Urged to Directly Negotiate with DPRK
  Pyongyang, July 24 (KCNA) -- The July 12th issue of the New York Times carried an article specially contributed by Nicolas Christoph [Nicholas D. Kristof] in which he urged Bush to have direct dialogue with the DPRK. He in the article charged that the Bush administration refused to have direct dialogue with north Korea and failed to take any substantial measure for the solution of the nuclear issue, only focusing on pressurizing it to return to the six-party talks. Urging the Bush administration to immediately come out for dialogue with north Korea, he asserted that the direct dialogue with it would not cause such miserable failure as the present policy towards north Korea would entail. He warned that President Bush's negative approach towards direct dialogue with north Korea is putting the Korean Peninsula into great danger. An article of the Washington Post on the same day said that if north Korea expresses its willingness to have dialogue with the U.S. the Bush administration should put an end to the four-year old internal argument on whether dialogue with north Korea could be the best option for America's security or not. [US-NK negotiations] [Partisan]
• Where the Right Is Right
  By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: July 24, 2005
  Liberals took the lead in championing human rights abroad in the 1970's, while conservatives mocked the idea. But these days liberals should be embarrassed that it's the Christian Right that is taking the lead in spotlighting repression in North Korea. Perhaps no country in human history has ever been as successful at totalitarianism as North Korea. Koreans sent back from China have been herded like beasts, with wires forced through their palms or under their collarbones. People who steal food have been burned at the stake, with their relatives recruited to light the match. Then there was the woman who was a true believer and suggested that the Dear Leader should stop womanizing: after she was ordered executed, her own husband volunteered to pull the trigger. "The biggest scandal in progressive politics," Tony Blair told The New Yorker this year, "is that you do not have people with placards out in the street on North Korea. I mean, that is a disgusting regime. The people are kept in a form of slavery, 23 million of them, and no one protests!"
  So can anything be done to help North Koreans? Yes, if liberals stop ceding the issue to conservative Christians. Ultimately, the solution to the nuclear standoff is the same as the solution to human rights abuses: dragging North Korea into the family of nations, as we did with Maoist China and Communist Vietnam. Our first step should be to talk directly to North Koreans, even invite senior officials to the United States [Black] [Human rights] [US NK negotiations] [Partisan]
• Mammoth Anti-U.S. Rally and Demonstration Held in Copenhagen
  Pyongyang, July 20 (KCNA) -- An anti-U.S. rally and demonstration took place in Copenhagen for five hours on July 6 with at least 30,000 people attending. A large number of members of organizations under the Denmark-DPRK Friendship Association participated in the demonstration, holding the placards reading "The U.S., quit south Korea", "Support to Korea's reunification" and "Drive the U.S. forces and WMD out of south Korea " as well as flags of the DPRK. They distributed booklets disclosing the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK and explaining the situation prevailing on the Korean Peninsula among many demonstrators [In denial]
• Top U.S. officials sidestep meeting on North's rights
  July 21, 2005 ? WASHINGTON ? A one-day, U.S. government-funded conference on North Korea's human rights situation took place here Tuesday, but senior American officials did not attend in an apparent sign that the Bush administration hopes to avoid irritating Pyongyang on the eve of the resumption of the six-party nuclear disarmament talks. Freedom House, a non-profit U.S. rights organization, hosted the conference, titled "Freedom for All Koreans." The U.S. State Department provided nearly $2 million so the event could be held. Representatives from more than 50 groups in South Korea and the United States attended. More than 1,000 politicians, rights activists, officials and North Korean defectors urged the international community to pay as much attention to Pyongyang's rights abuses as it does to the communist regime's nuclear arms programs. Pyongyang was quick to complain about the gathering. The North's state-run Korea Central News Agency issued a statement, warning that Washington's support for the conference threatened a rupture in the agreement to reconvene the six-nation talks. Missing at the event were U.S. State Department officials, despite its large financial contribution. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had initially planned to attend, but canceled.[Vituperation] [Human rights]
• Lectures on Anniversary of Kwangju Popular Uprising Given in U.S. and Canada
  Pyongyang, July 19 (KCNA) -- A group of lecturers of the Nationwide Special Committee for Probing the Truth behind the GIs' Massacres recently toured 19 cities including Washington, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles of the U.S. and Toronto of Canada to give lectures on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Kwangju Popular Uprising. [Human rights]
• Two Legislators to Attend NK Human Rights Conference
  Two South Korean legislators left for Washington on Monday to take part in an international conference calling for improved human rights conditions in North Korea, their aides said. Reps. Chung Eui-yong of the ruling Uri Party and Kim Moon-soo of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) are to participate in the conference organized by U.S. human rights group Freedom House on Tuesday. ``As a South Korean lawmaker, I feel ashamed that our National Assembly has yet to enact legislation or adopt a resolution on North Korean human rights,'' the GNP legislator said before departure.
• Seoul Sidesteps US Export Ban for S-N Phone Link
  By Kim Tae-gyu Staff Reporter South Korea plans to install telecom gear compatible with North Korea's for a telephone link between Seoul and the Kaesong industrial park without violating a U.S. export ban. An official of KT, South Korea's biggest fixed- line operator in charge of hooking up the nation to Kaesong, Tuesday said the company changed its policy for a more immediate phone link. ``Up until now, we have tried to install Western telecom gear in the North, thus raising concerns on violating U.S. regulations, which restrict export of certain products to the North,'' the official said, who wanted to be identified only by his surname Park. ``To avoid the export ban, we opted to set up phone transmission equipment, which are interoperable with those of the North, here in the South'' he said. [Sanctions] {Kaesong}
• US to Deploy Upgraded Spy Planes
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter
  "Hunter" Unmanned Aerial Vehicle The United States Forces Korea (USFK) will deploy a state-of-the-art unmanned aerial system in South Korea as part of efforts to upgrade its air surveillance and reconnaissance capability on North Korea, a senior U.S. military officer said. Brig. Gen. Joseph Martz, assistant division commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, said over the weekend that the USFK will position the ``Hunter'' Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to replace the ``Shadow 200 Tactical UAVs,'' a local daily reported. The Hunter is a joint tactical unmanned aerial system in service with the U.S. Army. Since March 2003, the U.S. spy planes, deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, have flown more than 600 reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition missions, USFK officials said. The Hunter is capable of flying more than 12 hours with a range of 125 kilometers. It is also capable of carrying out missions for real time imagery intelligence, artillery adjustment, battle damage assessment, target acquisition and battlefield observation. South Korea has no air surveillance system of its own and relies on U.S. reconnaissance aircraft based in Okinawa, Japan. [US military dominance]
• Charles L. Pritchard
  Bio from Brookings
• Remember the Pueblo
  By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: July 19, 2005 PYONGYANG, North Korea
  Moored on a river here in the North Korean capital is the U.S.S. Pueblo, described as an "armed spy ship of the U.S. imperialist aggression forces."
  The Pueblo is the Navy ship that North Korea seized in 1968 in waters off the country's east coast, setting off an international crisis.
  It's time for us to learn from the Pueblo again. The Bush administration's dismissal of serious, direct diplomacy has made Korea more dangerous. Engagement may be arduous, frustrating and often unsatisfying, but it's the only option we have left. {US NK policy] [Partisan]
• US Holds Key to NK Nukes: Roh
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter President Roh Moo-hyun said Monday it is the United States that holds the key to ending the diplomatic impasse surrounding North Korea's nuclear weapons program. While meeting with former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell at Chong Wa Dae, he placed much emphasis on the U.S. attitude in the new round of six-party talks, set to start next week. Powell, who has just acquired a venture business job in Silicon Valley after serving for the first-term George W. Bush administration, came here Saturday at the invitation of a South Korean business group.
  the meantime, South Korea called for a ``more sincere attitude'' from Japan, asking it not to focus on its own abductees issue in the multilateral talks, which are mainly aimed at ending the nuclear dispute. Japan has largely sided with the U.S. hardliners in the six-nation talks. [Friction] [SK-Japan relations]
• Rodong Sinmun Calls for Shattering Imperialists' Psychological Warfare
  Pyongyang, July 6 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun Wednesday in a signed article calls upon the world revolutionary people to maintain high vigilance and dynamically conduct the revolutionary ideological and cultural offensive to check and frustrate the imperialists' psychological warfare. The imperialists are escalating their psychological warfare against socialist countries, anti-U.S. independent countries and countries which are situated in areas of military and strategic importance and do not yield to their demands, the article says, and goes on: The aims sought by them in their psychological warfare are to conduct a protracted and persistent ideological and cultural offensive and divide and destabilize those countries with a view to creating mental frustration, psychological collapse, illusion about capitalism, the idea of surrendering to imperialism and discontent with their system and leadership among their people and causing social confusion and thereby realizing their ambition to bring down the systems with ease.
• Paek Nam Sun Meets Manager of New York Times
  Pyongyang, July 11 (KCNA) -- Paek Nam Sun, foreign minister of the DPRK, met and had a talk with Arthur Sulzburger, manager of the New York Times, and his party at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today [Media]
• Yang Hyong Sop Meets Chinese Delegation and Manager of New York Times
  Pyongyang, July 11 (KCNA) -- Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, met and had a friendly talk with the delegation of the Chinese People's Association for Peace and Disarmament led by its Vice-President Liu Jingqin at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today. On hand were Kim Jin Bom, vice-chairman of the Korean National Peace Committee, and Wu Donghe, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK. Yang Hyong Sop met and conversed with Arthur Sulzburger, manager of the New York Times, and his party at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today. Present there were Kim Yong Il, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK, and officials concerned. [Media]
• U.S. Anti-DPRK Vituperation Assailed
  Pyongyang, July 11 (KCNA) -- The U.S. diplomatic boss in a recent radio interview, crying over DPRK's "nuclear threat," threw together the balderdash that north Korea cannot join the international community unless it abandons nuclear weapons. Categorically refuting this trash, a Rodong Sinmun commentary Monday says the United States is putting up an absurd argument, never stopping tongue-lashing over the "nuclear issue" of the DPRK. The analyst continues:
  It is nonsensical for the U.S. to take issue with the "nuclear threat" from the DPRK. And linking the DPRK's "renunciation of nuclear weapons" with its "joining the international community" is contradictory to the nature of the matter. With the DPRK and the U.S. technically at war, no one can tell when the U.S. scheme to make a preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK will be carried into action. It was not easy but painstaking for the DPRK to have an access to nuclear weapons while going through manifold difficulties imposed upon it by tightened sanctions and blockade by the enemy. However, the DPRK had no other option but to choose this in order to defend its idea and system, security and sovereignty from the U.S. moves to stifle it with nukes. It was a just defensive step, to all intents and purpose, to defend itself. Herein lies the reason why the DPRK has built its own nuclear deterrent. [Vituperation]
• KCNA Blasts U.S. New Move for Sanctions against DPRK
  Pyongyang, July 11 (KCNA) -- The U.S. recently launched one more offensive for sanctions against some economic institutions in the DPRK allegedly on suspicion of their involvement in proliferating weapons of mass destruction (WMD). By the president's administrative order the U.S. announced its plan to apply sanctions against companies of different countries including three economic companies of the DPRK, which it claims involved in the "plan for the development of WMD", and companies of other countries which have business relations with those companies. [Interdiction]
• Resolution on Troop Withdrawal Submitted
  A group of 31 ruling and opposition party legislators Friday submitted a resolution to the National Assembly demanding the immediate withdrawal of South Korean troops deployed in Iraq, claiming the troop dispatch has left the country vulnerable to terrorist attacks. "There was a large-scale terrorist attack in London on July 7 to retaliate against Britain's dispatch of troops to Iraq, the legislators said in a news conference at the National Assembly.
• Behind Enemy Lines
  By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: July 12, 2005
  PYONGYANG, North Korea President Bush and his top officials are studiously pretending not to notice, but here in the most bizarre country in the world, the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il, is throwing down a nuclear gauntlet at Mr. Bush's feet.
  The Bush administration has refused to negotiate with North Korea one on one, or to offer a clear and substantial package to coax Mr. Kim away from his nuclear arsenal. Instead, Mr. Bush has focused on enticing North Korea into six-party talks. The North finally agreed on Saturday to end a yearlong stalemate and join another round of those talks. Mr. Bush is being suckered. Those talks are unlikely to get anywhere, and they simply give the North time to add to its nuclear capacity.
  No one knows whether direct negotiations and a clearer road map of incentives would succeed, but they couldn't fail any more abjectly than the present policy.
  General Li said that if the U.S. launched a surgical strike, the result "will be all-out war." I asked whether that meant North Korea would use nuclear weapons (most likely against Japan). He answered grimly, "I said, 'We will use all means.' " So don't let the welcome resumption of the six-party talks distract us from the reality: Mr. Bush's refusal to engage North Korea directly is making the peninsula steadily more dangerous. [Media] [Partisan] [US-NK negotiations]
• U.S. pressure on North Korea stalls nuclear settlement - expert
  MOSCOW, July 12 (RIA Novosti) - Excessive pressure from the United States on North Korea "does not add to stability" in the settlement of the Pyongyang nuclear program, a Russian expert said Tuesday. Commenting on North Korea's decision to resume six-party negotiations on its nuclear program, Colonel-General (retired) Leonid Ivashov, the vice president of the Academy of Geopolitical Studies, said, "such great powers as Russia, China and the USA should only act as the guarantors of non-interference."
• Nogunri Incident Resurfaces
  New evidence found in the Korean War-era massacre by American troops
  On September 29, 1999, Charles Hanley and his coworkers at the Associated Press stunned the world with their Pulitzer-winning investigative story of U.S. GIs shooting several hundred women and children in their care by a bridge near the Korean village of Nogunri (also spelled Rogun-ri or No Gun Ri) on July 26, 1950.
  The massacre of innocent civilians by American troops was, of course, well-known among the victims and their relatives, but the Seoul government had for years labeled anyone mentioning the massacre "communists," and brutally prosecuted them. Ironically, it took a fair-minded American journalist to disclose the massacre.
  Once the story broke and grabbed headline attention, the victims began to step forward. The Seoul government was placed between a rock and a hard place. Continuing to muzzle the victims would strengthen the notion that the Seoul government was a mere puppet of Uncle Sam. After all, its main reason for suppressing the story was to please him.
  Yet, allowing the whole ugly truth to come out in the open would open up a Pandora's box, because the Korean people would want to know why their government failed to protect their citizens from foreign troops and why they had not done anything for the victims -- or even, worse, why they had been persecuting the victims and their relatives (Nogunri Victims' Association, 2002).
• A Sucker Bet
  By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: July 17, 2005
  PYONGYANG, North Korea Every single home in this country has two portraits on the wall, one of the Great Leader, Kim Il Sung, who is still president even though he died 11 years ago, and one of his son, the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. Inspectors regularly visit homes to make sure the portraits are well cared for.
  If the American policy premise about North Korea - that it is near collapse - is highly dubious, our essential policy approach is even more so. The West should be trying to break that hermetic seal, to increase interactions with North Korea and to infiltrate into North Korea the most effective subversive agents we have: overweight Western business executives. [Media] [Partisan]
• Clashes Feared Over MacArthur Statue in Incheon
  Fears of a violent clash mounted Friday after progressive civic groups wanting a statue of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur in Incheon pulled down and conservative groups determined to protect it to the very end announced simultaneous Sunday demonstrations in the city's Freedom Park. One pro-unification civic group told police it will hold a rally in front of the MacArthur statue from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday. The gathering, which it expects to attract 100 people, will call for the expulsion of the U.S. military and the toppling of the statue. The group's chairman Kim Su-nam said rectifying "the vestiges of colonialism and our distorted history must begin with removing the MacArthur statue, which is a symbol of imperialism." He said the group would form a coalition with other groups to from Incheon to bring down the statue.
• Tokyo-Seoul rift threatens U.S. interest
  By SCOTT SNYDER Special to The Japan Times
  WASHINGTON -- Despite efforts during last month's summit between South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun and President George W. Bush in Washington to speak with "one voice" about the health of the alliance and to improve policy coordination toward North Korea, the summit saw the emergence of a potentially serious new area of divergence between American and South Korean allies: the role and future of Japan. South Korean criticisms of Japan are particularly sensitive for the Bush administration in view of the perception in Washington that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been one of America's most faithful and consistent supporters following 9/11 -- providing logistic support in Afghanistan and sending Japan's Self-Defense Forces to Iraq. But where Washington perceives loyalty and a Japan that is stepping up to the plate as a partner in achieving global stability, Seoul sees a rightward shift in Japanese politics and the prospect of Japan's renewed remilitarization. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Pyongyang denounces U.S. confiscation bid
  July 12, 2005 ? Reacting angrily to a recent U.S. executive order aimed at freezing assets of citizens and companies suspected of colluding in nuclear proliferation, North Korea's state-run Korea Central News Agency said yesterday that Washington will gain nothing from sanctions. Issued by U.S. President George W. Bush earlier this month, the order cited a bank and two trading companies in North Korea as targets along with Iranian and Syrian entities. Pyongyang said the order will not help resolve nuclear issues between the North and the United States. "Amid trust and stability, the international community is anticipating the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through the six-party talks," the North said. "Punching a negotiation counterpart at this point is an action ignoring morals and ethics between nations." [Sanctions] [Interdiction]
• US Army Equipped With High-Tech Weapons
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The U.S. 2nd Infantry Division stationed along the inter-Korean border has completed its transformation into a ``unit of employment-X (UEX),'' focusing on greater agility and a sophisticated weapons systems, a U.S military paper published in Seoul said Sunday. The U.S. infantry division closed its Engineer Brigade last Friday, marking a months-long process of reorganizing its units into a modular unit able to control up to five brigade combat teams in case of emergencies, the Stars and Stripes reported. [US military]
• Conference on N.K. Human Rights to Take Place in U.S.
  By Han Eun-jung Staff Reporter North Korea's human rights crisis will be the focus of an international conference to be held July 19 in Washington, D.C. The gathering, titled ``Freedom for All Koreans,'' will be a part of a new Human Rights in North Korea Project launched by Freedom House, an American group that promotes democracy.
• Foreign Guests Swarm to Secluded Pyongyang
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter The usually cloistered North Korean capital of Pyongyang opened its doors to a swarm of outside guests over the weekend, from New York Times chief Arthur Sulzberger to a nine- member delegation of European lawmakers. Also reportedly visiting the North from Saturday were U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos, a top Chinese Communist Party official and a delegation of South Korean linguists. North Korea observers said the increase in high- profile visitors to the communist nation, particularly media representatives such as Sulzberger, reflects its desire to appear more friendly and transparent in the eyes of the international community. [Peace efforts]
• New York Times chairman, columnist to visit North
  July 09, 2005 ? WASHINGTON ? Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., chairman of The New York Times Company and publisher of The New York Times, will begin a four-day visit to North Korea today accompanied by one of the paper's columnists, Nicholas D. Kristof. A diplomatic source in Washington said yesterday that Mr. Sulzberger and Mr. Kristof will stay in Pyongyang through July 12 and meet with high- level officials, including Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun and Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kye- gwan. The source said the visit of a prominent American media figure at a time when North Korea and the United States are engaged in tough diplomacy over the reopening of the six-party talks is highly significant. [Media]
• Bush Administration Accused of Scuttling Intl' Religious Meeting
  Pyongyang, July 8 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Korean Council of Religionists in a statement on July 7 denounced the bellicose Bush group for their fascist action to scuttle an international meeting initiated by the prestigious religious organizations in the U.S. Recalling that such prestigious religious organizations of the U.S. as the National Council of the Churches of Christ and the World Conference on Religion and Peace jointly initiated the opening of the "international meeting for peace on the Korean Peninsula" in New York and proposed to the Korean Council of Religionists to make a positive contribution to improving the situation in the peninsula, the statement said: The U.S. religious organizations' proposal to hold an international meeting for peace on the Korean Peninsula in the U.S. chiefly responsible for creating the great danger of a nuclear war on the peninsula is meaningful in every aspect as it arouses a serious concern of the world people. The Korean Council of Religionists accepted the repeated invitation of the U.S. religious organizations to the international meeting and decided to send a delegation of Korean religionists and scholars. While preparing itself for the success of the meeting, it has gone through all the necessary procedures for the entry into the U.S. after receiving a formal notice about the approval of visas from the U.S. Department of State in April. The U.S. Department of State, however, made a sudden about- face for no reason just a few days before the departure of the delegation. It unilaterally cancelled the visas, a mean and wicked action.
• USFK Claims Jurisdiction Over Fatal Traffic Accident
  SEOUL _ The United States Forces in Korea (USFK) demanded its jurisdiction be recognized in the case of an American solider who is charged with killing an elderly Korean woman in a traffic accident last month, prosecutors said Friday. The USFK said that Pfc. Jeff Bryant was on duty when the vehicle he was driving struck and killed 51-year-old Kim Myung-ja on a road in Tongduchon, north of Seoul.
• Nation Put on High Alert After London Explosions
  By Chung Ah-young Staff Reporter South Korea has tightened security and taken stepped-up measures to prevent possible terrorist attacks after a series of deadly blasts in London on Thursday.
  South Korea dispatched a 3,600-strong military unit, consisting mostly of engineers and medical personnel, to help rehabilitation efforts in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil. Meanwhile, Lee Jeong-mi, senior official of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), during the press conference, urged the government to withdraw the Zaytun Unit, Korean forces, operating in Iraq from the region for the sake of Koreans' life and safety. Lee said that the terrorist bombing in London was believed to be in retaliation for the British military forces' dispatch to Iraq and Afghanistan. ``The next target might be Korea which played a key role in sending military troops in Iraq,'' Lee said.
• US Stresses Safe Shipping Routes
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ Safeguarding of regional shipping routes is key to protecting the economies of South Korea and its neighboring countries, the head of U.S. troops here said Thursday.
  Gen. LaPorte has 32,500 U.S. troops under his command. In wartime, South Korea's 680,000 troops come under the command of the head of the United States Forces Korea. [US military dominance]
• Seoul Asks Parties to Refrain From Provoking Pyongyang
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ South Korea's point man on North Korea voiced optimism Thursday that the stalled six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program could be resumed if the parties concerned refrain from provoking North Korea for the time being, saying this is a very ``sensitive and crucial time.'' Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said a flurry of diplomatic activity between the two Koreas, the United States and China will continue through next week to jump start the nuclear talks which have been stalled for more than a year. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Seoul on July 12-13 for nuclear consultations with Seoul officials. She is also scheduled to visit China, Thailand and Japan during her Asian trip.
  South Korea has since asked the United States to soften its often harsh rhetoric toward the North to help create the conditions for the resumption of the nuclear talks. As part of his efforts, Chung flew to Washington last week and briefed U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and Rice on his one-on-one talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il last month. [Friction] [Vituperation]
• Rice to Visit on Opening 6-Way Talks
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Seoul next week for consultations on resuming the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday
• Seoul vows to bar U.S. strike at North
  By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune FRIDAY, JULY 8, 2005
  SEOUL President Roh Moo Hyun declared Thursday that under no circumstances would South Korea allow the United States to resort to a military attack against North Korea.
  President George W. Bush insists that he wants to resolve the nuclear crisis through diplomacy, but he has not officially ruled out a military option, which he has called a "last choice." Roh made the comment while blaming the nuclear deadlock on the uncompromising attitudes of both North Korea, which he called "the most stubborn country in the world," and the United States, which he described as the "most opinionated country in the world." Although a reflection of South Korea's desire to avoid another devastating war on the divided Korean Peninsula, Roh's blunt comment came amid strains in the alliance between Washington and Seoul. It was seen as a warning to hard-liners in Washington who have questioned the viability of six-party talks. Meanwhile, it was reported that North Korea has invited the governor of New Mexico and a U.S. congressman, both Democrats, to Pyongyang in a symbolic gesture of openness. Representative Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California, will probably visit North Korea from Saturday to next Tuesday, the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported from Beijing, citing unidentified diplomatic sources. Lantos's trip could be followed by a visit by the New Mexico governor, Bill Richardson, Kyodo said. It is a long-running North Korean policy to cultivate private and parliamentary channels in a negotiating partner even while escalating tensions on the government level. It has used such means to test initiatives, spread confusing messages or try to build understanding in Washington. The Bush administration has distanced itself from such trips, and no official negotiations have taken place during such visits in the past. But a White House endorsement for the trips would be taken by North Korea as an indication of U.S. willingness to engage the Communist regime. "Governor Richardson has been invited and the trip is under consideration," Richardson's spokesman, Billy Sparks, told The Associated Press. "He intends to coordinate fully with the Bush administration should the visit take place." Maureen Cormack, press attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, said the embassy has no information on the possible trips. The South Korean Foreign Ministry also had no information, though officials there said that Lantos and Richardson had shown interest in visiting the North. Richardson, who earned his stripes as a diplomatic troubleshooter as a U.S. congressman and later as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, visited North Korea in 1996 and helped secure the release of an American detained on spy charges. Two years earlier, he brought home a U.S. pilot whose helicopter was shot down in the North. In 2003, the governor invited North Korean envoys to Santa Fe. He espouses direct talks between the United States and North Korea - something the Bush administration has shunned. Lantos visited Pyongyang in January to discuss its nuclear program and human rights issues. In January, North Korea told a separate group of congressmen, led by a Republican, Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, that it would return to six-party talks "in a matter of weeks." But that optimism dissipated after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called North Korea an "outpost of tyranny" in her Senate confirmation hearing. [Friction] [Military option] [Peace efforts] [Spin]
• Pentagon Weighs Strategy Change to Deter Terror
  By THOM SHANKER and ERIC SCHMITT Published: July 5, 2005 WASHINGTON, July 4 - The Pentagon's most senior planners are challenging the longstanding strategy that requires the armed forces to be prepared to fight two major wars at a time. Instead, they are weighing whether to shape the military to mount one conventional campaign while devoting more resources to defending American territory and antiterrorism efforts.
  The consideration of these profound changes are at the center of the current top-to-bottom review of Pentagon strategy, as ordered by Congress every four years, and will determine the future size of the military as well as the fate of hundreds of billions of dollars in new weapons. The intense debate reflects a growing recognition that the current burden of maintaining forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with the other demands of the global campaign against terrorism, may force a change in the assumptions that have been the foundation of all military planning.
  "The war in Iraq requires a very large ground- force presence," said Loren Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute, a policy research center in Arlington, Va. "War with China or North Korea or Iran, the other countries mentioned in the major review scenarios, would require a much more capable Navy and Air Force."
  The current military strategy is known by a numerical label, 1-4-2-1, with the first number representing the defense of American territory. That is followed by numbers representing the ability to deter hostilities in four critical areas of the world, and to swiftly defeat two adversaries in near-simultaneous major combat operations The final number stands for a requirement that the military retain the capability, at the same time, to decisively defeat one of those two adversaries, which would include capturing a capital and toppling a government. [US military] [Imperialism] [China confrontation]
• North Korea's Rising Urgency
  Not Engaging Is Not an Alternative By Carl Levin and Hillary Clinton
  Tuesday, July 5, 2005; Page A13 It's been a year since the United States and its negotiating partners sat down with North Korea to discuss the elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons program. In the meantime Porter Goss, the director of central intelligence, has reported to the Senate Armed Services Committee (on March 17) that the number of nuclear weapons North Korea possesses has increased and that there is now "a range" of estimates above the one or two weapons that may have been produced in the early 1990s. His testimony implies that the intelligence community believes North Korea reprocessed the 8,000 fuel rods that had been kept under strict surveillance from 1994 to 2003 in accordance with the Agreed Framework between North Korea and the United States. If so, this could mean that North Korea has many times the number of nuclear weapons it did before the Bush administration took office.
  Thus, while the administration wrangled internally about whether to negotiate seriously with North Korea, Pyongyang was using the time to break out as a nuclear power. Indeed, in February the North Koreans declared that they have a "nuclear weapons arsenal." [Bush policy] [Partisan]
• U.S. Escape Exercise Disclosed
  Pyongyang, July 3 (KCNA) -- It was recently disclosed that the U.S. troops stationed in south Korea have conducted in extreme secrecy the exercises for escaping from the Korean Peninsula to provide for the operations for a preemptive attack upon the north, according to a press report. On April 29, the U.S. forces command in south Korea launched an escape exercise to cope with the circumstances of a real war, including the departure of a speed boat carrying the U.S. troops and their families from Pusan Port. The U.S. troops have launched such exercises two times every year in the way of noticing the content of documentary operations for the purpose of rapidly evacuating the U.S. troops and their families in case of emergency on the Korean Peninsula. But the U.S. troops conducted the exercise this time under the simulated conditions of an actual war with the participation of the troops and their families in different parts of south Korea. Such ill-boding military moves meaning the final completion of preparations for a preemptive nuclear attack upon the DPRK clearly hint that the U.S. bellicose forces' ignition of war is just near at hand.
• RS. Calls for foiling Imperialists' Moves for Ideological and Cultural Poisoning
  Pyongyang, July 3 (KCNA) -- The struggle against the imperialists' moves for ideological and cultural poisoning at the present is the struggle to defend the consciousness of national independence and accelerate the building of a new society and, at the same time, the main link of the anti-imperialist struggle, says Rodong Sinmun Sunday in a signed article. Bourgeois ideological and cultural poisoning is a means of aggression and intervention, the article notes. Referring to the fact that the United States has long resorted to the moves for ideological and cultural poisoning through corrupt films, radio voices and television broadcasting, it goes on:
• New Wind Blows in Washington's Korea Policy
  Six months into U.S. President George W. Bush's second term, a new wind is blowing in Washington's Korea policy. The neocons and Asia hands that had an iron grip on Korea policy during his first term are being replaced by pragmatists, with priority on specialization and Europe experts.
  "Foggy Bottom," the gray seven-story building named for the neighborhood of Washington D.C. where it is located, is the command center for U.S. diplomacy worldwide. It has undergone enormous changes in the last six months, with all officials in charge of Korea policy above the rank of deputy assistant secretary being replaced. When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took office, Christopher Hill took over from James Kelly as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and lost no time in replacing many of the working level officials in the bureau. All the upper-level officials dealing with Korea above the rank of the new Korea desk head were replaced -- a move prompting comments within the department that the entire Korean lineup has changed. Observers read the moves as a way of cleaning out the legacy of former secretary of state Colin Powell. There had been friction between Powell and the neocons over the North Korean nuclear dispute throughout his tenure, and North Korea policy became one of the signal foreign policy failures of Bush's first term. The personnel selection policy of Rice and Hill, the top Korea policy makers, can be summarized as leaving neocon ideologues out in the cold and appointing pragmatists, with priority given to professional capabilities. R. Nicholas Burns, the under secretary for political affairs, Stephen Krasner, the director for policy planning, Kathleen Stephens, the deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Alexander Vershbow, the putative new ambassador to Korea, are key figures in that shift.
• Wrong Click Publicises Workings of U.S. Korea Policy
  A confidential report for the Korean Embassy in Washington on key players in the U.S.' Korea policies is no longer so confidential after it was accidentally e-mailed to 800 subscribers of a daily political tip sheet containing news and gossip from around the country. The report titled "Players in Korea Policy in Washington, D.C." is an analysis of the powers that make Korea policy in the U.S. administration and was supposed to be sent only to the Korean embassy.
  The author of the report, Chris Nelson, accidentally emailed the report to the roughly 800 subscribers to his political tip sheet, the Nelson Report. The Washington Post reported that government officials in Washington, diplomats and think-tank researchers pay US$700 a month to receive his tip sheet. A former journalist, Nelson wrote his report based on interviews with government officials connected with Korea policy and researchers. The report said the Bush administration's views of North Korea have not changed since his first term, and that core decisions concerning the North, such as negotiations with Pyongyang, depend on U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.
  The following is a summary of the report: ? Vice President's Office = Real power concerning Korean issues, including whether to negotiate with North Korea, is with Vice President Dick Cheney. It's almost impossible to influence Cheney. This is because the vice president has a long experience with Korean issues, so he doesn't regard advice from outside experts as necessary. The key figure is Steve Yates, Cheney's foreign policy advisor. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Cheney's chief of staff and right-hand man, also places a key role. [US policy] [Cheney]
• Special Report Goes on the Offensive
  By Al Kamen Wednesday, June 29, 2005; Page A19 The U.S.-Asia foreign policy establishment here is positively gaga over a teensy transmission error last week by consultant Chris Nelson , author of the highly authoritative Nelson Report, a must-read for those involved in foreign affairs, especially on Asia. Nelson, who works for Samuels International, prepared an exceptionally frank "special report for the embassy of the Republic of South Korea" titled "Players on Korea Policy in Washington, D.C."
  Acknowledging his brutal assessments -- his survey left few untrashed -- he warned the embassy that "if ANY of this Report is seen by ANY one outside of the embassy, its humble author is going to have to receive political asylum." [US policy] [Cheney]
• Kim Yong Dae Meets American Professor
  Pyongyang, July 1 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Dae, vice- president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, met and had a conversation with Professor Jim Walsh of Harvard University at the Mansudae Assembly Hall Friday.
• Jim Walsh
  Dr. Jim Walsh is Executive Director of Harvard University's Managing the Atom Project at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Dr. Walsh's research and writings focus on international security, and in particular, topics involving weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and the Middle East. This past year, Dr. Walsh testified before the United States Senate on the issue of nuclear terrorism.
• U.S. targets 3 businesses in North
  July 01, 2005 ? A bank and two trading companies in North Korea were cited in a new executive order issued by U.S. President George W. Bush as part of his administration's broad attempt to stem the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
  The White House announced the order aimed at freezing the assets of citizens and companies suspected of colluding in proliferation. Along with a Syrian research agency and three Iranian companies, North Korea's Korea Mining Development Trading Corp., Korea Ryongbong General Corp. and Tanchon Commercial Bank, all of Pyongyang, were listed as targets of the order. The U.S. government has previously taken action against at least one of the three North Korean firms. It was not immediately clear if they had assets in the United States. The measures are unlikely to affect North Korea directly because there are virtually no business relations between the United States and North Korea. But other foreign companies, particularly South Korean and Chinese firms with assets in the United States, could be affected. The list of firms, including South Korean ones that do business with the three entities, will soon be made public, Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said. As part of the measure, assets of persons and companies that have done business with any firms listed are to be seized as well if any of the transactions materially contributed to nuclear proliferation. The United States has for years imposed sanctions and frozen all the assets it could of North Korean companies thought to be involved in selling missiles or in drug trafficking. According to the U.S. Treasury Department's 2004 report to Congress on assets held by terrorist groups, the United States has already frozen $32 million in North Korean assets in the United States. [Interdiction] [Sanctions]
• US Backs Seoul's NK Aid Plan
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter Washington's top negotiator in the nuclear standoff with North Korea signaled on Thursday that the United States will support South Korea's much-vaunted but as yet undisclosed proposal aimed at ending the crisis. Christopher Hill, U.S. assistant secretary of state, said the U.S. has no problems with the proposal, talking with reporters after a meeting with South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young in Washington. [Friction] [In denial]
• More Killings of S. Korean Civilians by U.S. Forces Disclosed
  Pyongyang, June 29 (KCNA) -- More killings of south Korean civilians by U.S. forces during the Korean war were disclosed, according to the south Korean MBC on June 26. On January 19, 1951, more than 30 fighters of the U.S. air force indiscriminately dropped bombs with strong destructive power over a village in Sansong-ri, Ryechon County, North Kyongsang Province, by an order for a scorched-earth operation issued by the then commander of the 10th U.S. Army Corps. This barbarism left at least 130 villagers dead or wounded and some of them reported missing. This fact was proved by a testimony made by a U.S. soldier who participated in the war and a confidential document preserved in a U.S. archive. Noting that there still remain traces of damage done to Sansong-ri 54 years ago, MBC said that this conveys the killing of civilians at that time as it was. [Korea War events]
• 'Allies Can Defeat Nuclear Threat'
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States maintain a strong military alliance capable of deterring any aggression by a nuclear-armed North Korea and holding the balance of power on the Korean Peninsula, a top U.S. military officer said Wednesday. Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, commander of the United States Forces Korea (USFK), said the U.S. military believes the North has at least two nuclear weapons and is also working to advance its missile program. ``Whether North Korea has one or several nuclear weapons does not change the balance on the peninsula,'' LaPorte said in an interview with PBC Radio. ``The U.S. and the Republic of Korea retain our ability to deter North Korean aggression and if required, to decisively defeat the North Korean threat if they were to threaten South Korea.'' [Military balance] [Threat]

• US to Target North Korea-Linked Firms
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter The United States is set to adopt an executive order allowing officials to freeze the assets of companies doing business with North Korea, Iran and Syria, according to news reports. U.S. President George W. Bush is likely to sign the order this week giving the Treasury Dept. the power to target the assets of firms believed to be assisting the three nations in their alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs, Reuters news agency reported. [Interdiction] [Sanctions]
• . Unification minister bound for Washington
  June 28, 2005 ? Unification Minister Chung Dong- young will depart for Washington for a five-day visit tomorrow, with plans to meet with U.S. officials to discuss recent talks between North and South Korea. Mr. Chung hopes to meet with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, among other officials, said Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hong-jae. An official with the U.S. Embassy in Seoul said the embassy had no information about the trip.
• U.S. Urged to Give up Wild Ambition to "Bring Down System" of DPRK
  Pyongyang, June 27 (KCNA) -- The top diplomat and other senior officials of the U.S. Department of State are asserting that even if the nuclear issue is settled, the U.S.-DPRK relations cannot be normalized unless such issues as "human rights, terrorism, missile, conventional weapons, drug and counterfeit notes" are resolved. In this regard Rodong Sinmun Monday says in a signed commentary: The U.S. is raising the solution of not only the nuclear issue but other issues as preconditions for normalizing the bilateral relations. This is, in essence, prompted by a dangerous intention to force the DPRK to dismantle its nuclear weapons and, furthermore, bring down its system come what may under various pretexts. The U.S. branded the DPRK as part of "an axis of evil" and "an outpost of tyranny" and singled it out as a target of its preemptive nuclear attack, a clear indication that the ultimate goal of the U.S. policy toward the DPRK is to overturn its system. It is the height of absurdity for the U.S. to claim that the bilateral relations cannot be normalized unless not only the nuclear issue but "human rights, terrorism and missile" and other issues are settled. The normalization of the relations between the DPRK and the U.S. can never come true so long as the latter remains hostile to the DPRK and keen to overthrow the former's system. If the U.S. is interested in normalizing the bilateral relations, it should recognize and respect the system in the DPRK and give up its intention to bring it down. Though U.S. is talking a lot that it has no hostile intent towards the DPRK and it will not invade it, its actual deeds strongly smack of the intention to bring down the system in the DPRK. Precisely this compels the DPRK to entertain distrust in the U.S. and to be always on its guard against the U.S. The U.S. should respect the DPRK and give up its design to bring down its system. This is the solution to the problem.
• Unification Chief to Visit US for Nuke Consultations
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter Unification Minister Chung Dong-young will fly to the United States tomorrow to brief top Washington officials about recent inter-Korean discussions on North Korea's nuclear weapons program, the government said Monday. Chung hopes to meet with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley during the six-day visit but his schedule has not yet been fixed, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hong-jae told reporters.
• No more withdrawals, Rumsfeld tells general
  June 27, 2005 ? In a meeting in Washington with a delegation of retired senior Korean military officers, including former four-star general Paik Sun-yup, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave his assurance that there would be no further withdrawals of U.S. troops from Korea beyond what Seoul and Washington have already agreed to. Members of the Korean Retired Generals and Admirals Association said Mr. Rumsfeld made the statement in a meeting last week. They also quoted the defense secretary as saying that Washington would keep the commanding officer of the ROK-US Combined Forces Command at the four- star general level. Seoul and Washington reached an agreement last year on a gradual pullout of 12,500 U.S. troops stationed on the Korean peninsula by the year 2008.
• Democrats Call for US Envoy to N. Korea
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate are urging President George W. Bush to name a special envoy to hold direct talks with North Korea in a bid to resolve the protracted nuclear standoff. Senators Harry Reid, Nev., Joseph Biden, Del., Carl Levin, Mich., and Jay Rockefeller, W.Va., called for direct negotiations with the North in a letter sent to the U.S. president last week. Reid is the Democratic leader in the Senate.
  ``American national security has been degraded over the past year,'' they warned. ``If North Korea chooses to test a nuclear weapon, there will be no question of its capabilities and it is not unreasonable to expect neighboring states in Northeast Asia to develop their own nuclear weapons.'' [Japanese remilitarisation] [Partisan] [Peace efforts]
• Korean War of Aggression Carefully Prepared by U.S.
  Pyongyang, June 25 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists are the sworn enemy of the Korean people as they provoked the war of aggression against the DPRK in the 1950s, inflicting unspeakable misfortune and disasters upon the Koreans, says Rodong Sinmun Saturday in a signed article. It continues: The U.S. imperialists acted the fool in a bid to mislead the world public opinion by giving impression that the DPRK was to blame for the outbreak of the war. The last Korean war was a war of aggression carefully prepared by them. They instigated the south Korean forces to conduct armed provocations in areas north of the 38th parallel since 1947 in order to examine their war posture and bolster their capacity to fight an actual war. The U.S. dispatched presidential special envoy Dulles, Defence Secretary Johnson and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Bradley and others to south Korea and Tokyo under the signboard of discussing issues related to "peace treaty" with a view to examining the war preparations on the spot and taking necessary measures.
  The U.S. set June 25 as the day to start the war from the calculation that, it being Sunday, no one would believe the U.S. and south Korea would launch the war on Sunday because Christians in both countries did not work on the Sabbath. This was aimed to cover up their true colors as a provoker of the war. Based on the detailed operation plan worked out in advance and meticulous military preparations for the war, the U.S. imperialists started attacks against the DPRK on the whole front all of a sudden at the dawn of June 25, 1950.
• US Students Relieve Horror of Nogun-ri
  YONGDONG, North Chungchong Province (Yonhap) _ A group of students from the United States and South Korea called for peace and respect for human rights Saturday, as they visited the bridge of Nogun-ri and remembered the civilian killings there dealt out by U.S. soldiers in 1950.
• The Nogunri Incident Resurfaces as New Evidence Found
  Lee Wha Rang
  When the tragic massacre of several hundred Korean women and children at Nogunri by American troops was about fade into oblivion, a Harvard University historian disclosed a secret cable that reports on a high-level of American and Korean officials on a decision to shoot civilian refugees crossing American lines in July 1950. Until now, the Pentagon claimed a handful soldiers on their own initiative did the shooting. The cable shows the command to kill came from the top. [Korean War events]
• U.S. Can Never Evade Responsibility for Provoking Korean War
  Pyongyang, June 24 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists have desperately tried to shift the blame for the outbreak of the Korean war on June 25, 1950, onto the DPRK and justify its war crimes until today, more than half a century after they triggered off the war, says Rodong Sinmun in an article Friday. The U.S. describes the Korean war as "a sudden event" to create the impression that it "was taken unawares" by someone, the author of the article says, and goes on: The U.S. imperialists are these days staging exercises of evacuating U.S. army families in south Korea coupled with war games against the north. This is the repetition of the family evacuation din kicked up just before the U.S. launched the Korean war. Such a thing can be seen only on the eve of a war.
• Rice reportedly sets another Asia tour
  June 25, 2005 ? In an attempt to revive six- party talks aimed at ending the North Korea nuclear crisis, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is considering a trip to participating Asian countries, the Reuters news agency reported yesterday. Citing unidentified U.S. officials, Reuters said Ms. Rice is considering a visit to China, Japan and South Korea. The secretary embarked on a similar trip three months ago
• Rice May Visit Seoul Next Month
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may visit Seoul next month as part of a tour of Northeast Asian nations aimed at resolving the North Korean nuclear standoff, news reports and government sources said yesterday.
• Interpreter Works 27 Years for Korea-US Summits
  By Lee Jong-goo Staff Reporter At the latest Korea-U.S summit meeting on June 10 in Washington there was no longer the familiar voice of the American side's Korean-language interpreter. A new person has replaced Korean-American Tong Kim, 69, or Kim Dong-hyun in Korean, as the interpreter. The absence means Kim's upcoming retirement as the State Department's Korean language interpreter, who has witnessed Korea's diplomatic scenes with the United States as a U.S. government official since 1978. Kim met with a group of Korean correspondents accredited to Washington on June 20 to reminisce about some of the tales of diplomatic episodes covering the Korea-U.S. summits ranging from the late Ronald Reagan to incumbent president George W. Bush and other high-profile events like Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's visit to Pyongyang,the U.S.-North Korea nuclear negotiations in Geneva and the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear program. Kim says he accompanied American delegates to Pyongyang 17 times in the 1990s amid brisk U.S.-Korea interactions, serving as the bridge of communication between the two countries.
  The most impressive moment of his career as an interpreter, he went on, was the once trailblazing meeting that lasted 12 hours his boss Albright had with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in the North Korean capital in October 2000. His impression of the North Korean ruler was that he was quick in brain operations, has lots of information and is broad-minded" as the North Koreans say. Kim Jong-il, he portrays, was sort of a combination of the head of DJ and the guts of YS, the pet initials of the two former South Korean Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Kim Young-sam. [US-NK relations] [US-SK relations] [Kim Jong Il] [Madelaine Albright] [culture gap]
• 9 Lawmakers Call for Troop Withdrawal From Iraq
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter A group of nine ruling and opposition party lawmakers said Wednesday that they will submit a resolution calling for the withdrawal of South Korean troops in Iraq to the National Assembly within the month. [Friction]
• U.S. aide brushes off rhetoric charge
  June 24, 2005 ? WASHINGTON ? A U.S. Department of State official yesterday sidestepped criticism from South Korea that harsh rhetoric from Washington toward Pyongyang was putting at risk any progress in the effort to revive the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear arms program. Asked what he thought of Seoul's appeal Tuesday to use restraint in addressing North Korea issues, the official said a restatement by a top Washington official that North Korea is "an outpost of tyranny" is not important but a decision by North Korea to return to the talks is. South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon expressed exasperation on Tuesday about comments by U.S. Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky who repeated the description of North Korea at a Washington seminar. [Friction] [Vituperation]
• Reorganization of U.S. Second Division under Fire
  Pyongyang, June 22 (KCNA) --The U.S. Second Division, the main force of its forces in south Korea, has been reorganized into a "future- oriented division" capable of carrying out long- range operations with "strategic flexibility". Terming this a very dangerous development, Rodong Sinmun Wednesday brands it as a military provocation driving the situation on the Korean Peninsula to confrontation and war, not peace and reunification. The analyst says:
• Seoul Laments U.S. Official's 'Tyranny Outpost' Comment
  Top South Korean officials have expressed disappointment that U.S. government figures keep labeling North Korea an "outpost of tyranny", days after the reclusive country signaled it could return to six-party talks on its nuclear program if Washington "acknowledges and respects" it. On Monday, U.S. Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky listed North Korea as an "outpost of tyranny" along with Myanmar, Zimbabwe and Cuba, in a catchphrase coined months ago by her boss Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who when asked on Sunday whether she stood by it told FOX News, "I think the nature of the North Korean regime is self-evident."
  Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said such comments "do not help the atmosphere" for getting the talks restarted. "I think they are regrettable," he said, adding he would tell Rice so when the two meet in Brussels for an international donors' conference for Iraq on Wednesday. [Vituperation] [Friction]
• DPRK and U.S. Hold Working-Level Contact in New York
  DPRK and U.S. diplomats held their first face-to- face talks in five months on May 13 at Pyongyang's UN mission in New York. As regards the contact in New York, a spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry issued a comment on May 22. "A delegate of the U.S. State Department on May 13 paid a call on the DPRK mission at the United Nations in New York to convey to the mission its already known stand including its intention to recognize the DPRK as a sovereign state and its intention of non-aggression," the official KCNA reported, quoting the spokesman. Attending the meeting from the DPRK side were Pak Kil Yon, permanent representative at the UN, deputy representative Kim Chang Guk and other officials. The U.S. delegation included Joseph DeTrani, the US special envoy for the six-party talks, and James Foster, director of the State Department's office of Korean affairs
• Pyongyang Condemns U.S. "OPLAN 8022-02"
  "It has been disclosed that the United States worked out 'OPLAN 8022-02,' a scenario of preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK, in top secrecy last year," said a spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (CPRF) in a statement issued on May 19.
• United States Interests in Northeast Asia"
  Statement by Representative James A. Leach Chairman, Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific Hearing on "United States Interests in Northeast Asia" May 26, 2005
  On behalf of the Subcommittee, I would like to welcome our distinguished witnesses to our hearing this morning. We are fortunate today to have with us Christopher R. Hill, the new Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific, who is making his inaugural appearance before the Subcommittee today. Assistant Secretary Hill has just returned from a tour of the region and we look forward to hearing his impressions of the trip. Likewise, although he is well-known to this Subcommittee, also making his first appearance before us is Richard P. Lawless, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia and the Pacific. The Subcommittee extends a hearty welcome to you both.
• The North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004: Issues and Implementation
  Informal Notes from East Asia Policy Education Project
  FCNL Education Fund Korea Update 245 Second Street NE, Washington, DC 20002-5795 phone: (202) 547-6000 ext. 110 fax: (202) 547-6019 email: Karin@fcnl.org web site: www.fcnl.org ____________________________________________________________ The North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004: Issues and Implementation Informal Notes April 28, 2005 Joint Hearing: House International Relations Committee, Subcommittee on Asia ant the Pacific and Subcommittee on Africa, Global Rights, and International Operations
• The United States and Northeast Asia
  Hearing of the Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee
  May 26, 2005 Informal notes from East Asia Policy Education Project
• South Korea and the United States Sixty Years On
  By Charles K. Armstrong
  September 8, 2005, marks the sixtieth anniversary of the arrival of US soldiers on the Korean peninsula to accept the surrender of Japanese forces
  Finally, South Korean views of North Korea have changed markedly in recent years, and stand in striking contrast to the hardline policy of the Bush administration. While there are many differences within South Korea about how to deal with the North, there is a growing consensus that North-South cooperation is beneficial to both sides, that gradual reunification is preferable to sudden collapse and absorption of North Korea by the ROK, that the North Korean threat can be managed, and that it is better to change North Korea's undesirable behavior by persuasion rather than by coercion. Such views in broad form are shared across much of the political spectrum in South Korea, including the conservative Grand National Party, led by Park Geun-hye, daughter of former South Korean dictator Park Chung Hee. The Bush Administration approaches North Korea very differently, creating a deep unease among many in South Korea.
  One hears that Korea is the last outpost of the cold war, but that may be true only for Americans. For a growing number of South Koreans, their cold war -- a North-South conflict that began in the aftermath of colonial liberation and destroyed the universal hope for a peaceful, independent and unified post-colonial Korea -- is already over. Sixty years marks the end of a life cycle in East Asian tradition, a time for reflection, re-evaluation, and recognition that things can never be the same. Koreans have already begun this process; it remains for outsiders, Americans in particular, to recognize that a new cycle is underway.
• Same Bed, Different Nightmares: Diverging U.S. and South Korean Views of North Korea
  By L. Gordon Flake
  June 7th, 2005 L. Gordon Flake, Executive Director of the Mansfield Foundation, writes: "The U.S.-ROK alliance, however, was built on the foundation of a common nightmare, the threat from North Korea. How the two nations address that nightmare, and how the current crisis on the Peninsula is resolved, will ultimately determine what dreams Korea and the United States will share in the future." [US-SK relations] [Friction]
• Prospects for U.S. Policy toward the Korean Peninsula in the Second Bush Administration
  Speech at the Conference "Prospects for U.S. Policy toward the Korean Peninsula in the Second Bush Administration"
  By U.S. Representative James A. Leach
  May 31st, 2005 This speech by U.S. Representative James A. Leach, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, was delivered to the CSIS and Chosun Ilbo Conference on "Prospects for U.S. Policy toward the Korean Peninsula in the Second Bush Administration" on May 17th, 2005. Representative Leach said, "A credible change in strategic direction away from isolation, repression, and nuclearization would put the DPRK's international footing on a basis of amity and cooperation, with prosperity in close reach. One of our many tasks in the weeks ahead is to make that previously unthinkable possibility easier for the North Korean leadership to imagine."
• Ban decries U.S. rhetoric toward North
  June 22, 2005 ? Upset by Washington's unrelenting labeling of North Korea as an "outpost of tyranny," Foreign Minister Ban Ki- moon issued a strong appeal to the United States yesterday to tone down the way it talks about Pyongyang. "High-ranking U.S. officials' recent characterization of North Korea as an outpost of tyranny does not help at all the current atmosphere of inter-Korean reconciliation and the efforts to resume the stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks," Mr. Ban said. "It is very regretful." A North Korean official at the United Nations told Yonhap News Agency on Monday in New York that his country would return to the negotiation table if the United States ends its harsh rhetoric. "If the word tyranny is not used for at least a month, I think the six-nation talks will resume in July," the official was quoted in the report. [Vituperation] [Friction]
• Assembly Delays Approving Government Deal on US Military Costs
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter Parliamentary ratification of South Korea's share of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) spending has been delayed to next Monday. The delay came as Rep. Kwon Young-ghil of the progressive Democratic Labor Party (DLP) called for a more in-depth review of the share, which he claims has drastically increased from previous years. ``The outcome of negotiations with the U.S. is awkward, as it did not even consider the planned reduction of troops,'' Kwon said. ``The nation's burden to maintain the USFK for the fiscal 2006 has increased about $58 million, or 9.3 percent.'' [Friction] [Tribute]
• A War Shrine, for a Japan Seeking a Not Guilty Verdict
  By NORIMITSU ONISHI Published: June 22, 2005 TOKYO - One recent rainy morning, a couple of dozen vehicles belonging to the Patriotic Youth League and other Japanese right-wing groups gathered inside the grounds of Yasukuni Shrine, the Shinto memorial to Japan's war dead. "Revere the Emperor," read a slogan on one truck. Others alluded to enemies unnamed: "Love and Protect our Motherland" and "Kill one, one at a time."
  At 12:30 p.m., the caravan spilled out onto Tokyo's streets, destination unclear. But the targets are usually the same: the Chinese Embassy, the liberal media, anybody daring to challenge the argument that Japan's wars were legitimate and that their leaders were not criminals. Yasukuni Shrine is the symbolic center of Japan's efforts to revise its militaristic past, and lies at the heart of worsening relations between Japan and its neighbors. Not only right-wing extremists, but now also mainstream politicians and the news media are more openly arguing that the 14 war criminals enshrined in Yasukuni were not guilty - and, because they were not, Japan's wars could not have been that bad. In a face-to-face meeting on June 20, for example, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi steadfastly resisted the entreaties of President Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea that he stop visiting the shrine and build an alternate one that would be more acceptable to China and the Koreas, all of them victims of a brutal Japanese colonization.
  While the Japanese have received the bulk of the criticism for the shrine, they are not, however, the only ones to have manipulated the meaning of Yasukuni and its war criminals. So have the Chinese, the Taiwanese and the Americans, each according to their own interests. During America's six-year occupation of Japan after World War II, Americans spent the first half democratizing the country and prosecuting war criminals. In the second half, with Communists controlling China and the cold war bearing down, Washington reversed course: wartime leaders were rehabilitated overnight in an effort to make Japan strong. Some Class A war criminal suspects, after barely escaping the noose, became postwar Japan's political and business leaders; one, Nobusuke Kishi, even became prime minister.
  Noticeable in its silence on Yasukuni and the verdict on the Class A war criminals is the United States. As the nation that defeated Japan, occupied it and still has 50,000 troops deployed here, America is the one country that Japan may still listen to on these subjects. America is hardly a disinterested observer, after all, because Yasukuni deifies Japanese who ordered the attack on Pearl Harbor.
  American officials raise an eyebrow at Japanese comparisons of Yasukuni to Arlington National Cemetery. But they tend to defend, albeit somewhat uncomfortably, Japanese visits to Yasukuni, or maintain a studied silence. The cold war may be over, but China's rise alarms America just as much as did the rise of Communism in the 1940's. So better a strong, remilitarized Japan, no matter what the Japanese say about Yasukuni or war criminals. [US-Japan policy] [US-China policy] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Database Displays N. Korea's Verbal Artillery
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter In the war of words between North Korea and the United States, one side clearly has the bigger rhetorical artillery. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney fired off a few verbal mortar rounds at Pyongyang last month, calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-il ``one of the world's more irresponsible leaders'' who likes to ``throw his weight around.'' The communist regime responded with a 10-megaton nuclear bomb: ``Cheney is hated as the most cruel monster and blood-thirsty beast as he has drenched various parts of the world in blood,'' a North Korean Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying by its Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Expressions such as this have become the trademarks of Pyongyang's state-run media. As the nuclear standoff drags on, it's often not the content of North Korean statements that make headlines, but rather their extraordinary turn of phrase. [Vituperation]

• Plans for North collapse discussed
  May 24, 2005 ? Contingency plans for a military response to a collapse of the North Korean regime ? an issue that caused a diplomatic flap between Seoul and Washington earlier this year ? were quietly discussed by U.S. and South Korean officials this month at a three-day meeting of the United Nations Command in Seoul, the JoongAng Ilbo has learned. No firm policy decisions were reached at the closed-door sessions, which took place May 10 to 12 at Yongsan Garrison, according to a participant in the meeting, who characterized it as essentially a brainstorming session. [OPLAN]
• Assessing sentiments 20 years after siege
  May 23, 2005 ? An old Korean saying has it that 10 years is enough for nature to change its face. So perhaps it is not surprising that 20 years have softened the anti-American views of some of the students who once famously seized a U.S. government office in Seoul. Exactly two decades have passed since 73 university students broke into the United States Information Resource Center in Euljiro, Seoul, on May 23, 1985. The students occupied the center for three days to demonstrate their opposition to the U.S. government, which they believed played a significant role in the massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Gwangju in May 1980. [Kwangju]
• U.S. Hit for Its False Propaganda
  Pyongyang, May 22 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists resort to false propaganda based on sheer lies against other countries in a bid to invent pretexts for aggression and military intervention. It is a vicious and crafty method for them to do so before aggression and war. Rodong Sinmun Sunday says this in a signed article. It goes on: It is the calculation of the U.S. that it can avoid accusation and denunciation from the international community and achieve its aggressive aim with ease only when it tarnishes the images of those countries to be invaded by it, puts international pressure on them before invading them after building up world public opinion favorable to it. This time the work of the weapons inspection team in Iraq came to a close with no results, clearly proving that there is no WMD there. This irrefutably proves that the story about Iraq's "possession of WMD" floated by the U.S. as a justification for launching the Iraqi war was a sheer lie and it was deliberately faked up and spread by it.
  It is groundlessly pulling up the DPRK over its "nuclear and missile issues", "human rights issue", etc. in a desperate effort to invent a pretext for military aggression against it. This is proved by the fact that a recent issue of the Washington Post carried a shocking report that the U.S. government offered false information to south Korea, Japan and other countries that north Korea exported nuclear weapon grade substance to Libya in a bid to pressurize north Korea. Washington once asserted that north Korea was building "underground nuclear facilities" and they were posing a "threat" to the U.S. But this turned out to be a sheer fabrication, bringing it to shame.
• "OPLAN 8022-02" Flailed
  Pyongyang, May 20 (KCNA) -- It has been disclosed that the United States worked out "OPLAN 8022-02", a scenario of preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK, in top secrecy last year. In this regard a spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland issued a statement on Thursday. This plan said to be approved by U.S. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is extremely provocative in content which calls for striking the designated targets swiftly and accurately by air-raid and neutralizing north Korea's reaction by electronic and cyber attack before removing and seizing its nuclear devices by hurling small special units.
• U.S. Operation Plan for Preemptive Attack on DPRK Disclosed
  Pyongyang, May 19 (KCNA) -- The U.S. has worked out a concrete operation plan for a preemptive attack on nuclear facilities of the DPRK, according to the south Korean MBC quoting a report of the May 16 issue of the Washington Post. This top secret plan the U.S. worked out last year by putting the Bush administration's strategy of preemptive attack into a concrete shape envisages seizing the DPRK's nuclear facilities through air strikes and the infiltration of a special unit and mounting even a nuclear assault. This fact goes to patently prove that the U.S. loudmouthed "peaceful solution to the north Korean nuclear issue" and its touted "recognition of a sovereign state" are nothing but hypocrisy and its warmongers are seized only by the ambition to stifle the DPRK.
• Not Just A Last Resort?
  A Global Strike Plan, With a Nuclear Option By William Arkin Sunday, May 15, 2005; Page B01 Early last summer, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved a top secret "Interim Global Strike Alert Order" directing the military to assume and maintain readiness to attack hostile countries that are developing weapons of mass destruction, specifically Iran and North Korea. Two months later, Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson, commander of the 8th Air Force, told a reporter that his fleet of B-2 and B-52 bombers had changed its way of operating so that it could be ready to carry out such missions. "We're now at the point where we are essentially on alert," Carlson said in an interview with the Shreveport (La.) Times. "We have the capacity to plan and execute global strikes." Carlson said his forces were the U.S. Strategic Command's "focal point for global strike" and could execute an attack "in half a day or less."
  In the secret world of military planning, global strike has become the term of art to describe a specific preemptive attack. When military officials refer to global strike, they stress its conventional elements. Surprisingly, however, global strike also includes a nuclear option, which runs counter to traditional U.S. notions about the defensive role of nuclear weapons.
  But a confluence of events, beginning with the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and the president's forthright commitment to the idea of preemptive action to prevent future attacks, has set in motion a process that has led to a fundamental change in how the U.S. military might respond to certain possible threats. Understanding how we got to this point, and what it might mean for U.S. policy, is particularly important now -- with the renewed focus last week on Iran's nuclear intentions and on speculation that North Korea is ready to conduct its first test of a nuclear weapon. Global strike has become one of the core missions for the Omaha-based Strategic Command, or Stratcom. Once, Stratcom oversaw only the nation's nuclear forces; now it has responsibility for overseeing a global strike plan with both conventional and nuclear options. President Bush spelled out the definition of "full-spectrum" global strike in a January 2003 classified directive, describing it as "a capability to deliver rapid, extended range, precision kinetic (nuclear and conventional) and non-kinetic (elements of space and information operations) effects in support of theater and national objectives." This blurring of the nuclear/conventional line, wittingly or unwittingly, could heighten the risk that the nuclear option will be used. Exhibit A may be the Stratcom contingency plan for dealing with "imminent" threats from countries such as North Korea or Iran, formally known as CONPLAN 8022-02.
  ONPLAN 8022 is different from other war plans in that it posits a small-scale operation and no "boots on the ground."
  CONPLAN 8022 anticipates two different scenarios. The first is a response to a specific and imminent nuclear threat, say in North Korea. A quick-reaction, highly choreographed strike would combine pinpoint bombing with electronic warfare and cyberattacks to disable a North Korean response, with commandos operating deep in enemy territory, perhaps even to take possession of the nuclear device.
• 'S. Korea-US Alliance Is Solid'
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter President Roh Moo-hyun Saturday rebuffed the allegation that the alliance between South Korea and the Untied States has been weakened due to his declared pursuit of a balancer role in Northeast Asia. ``The Korea-U.S. alliance will remain as solid as ever,'' Roh said in message sent to commemorate the unveiling of a monument for those killed at the Kaemi Koji, or Kaemi Highlands, during the 1950-53 Korean War.
• KCNA Refutes U.S. Lie bout DPRK's Scrapping of AF
  Pyongyang, May 18 (KCNA) -- Recently Bush war- like forces keep floating misinformation that DPRK scrapped the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework. In a word, this is nothing but a desperate attempt of the present U.S. administration to evade its responsibility for its foreign policy failure and soothe the criticism and derision of the U.S. at home and abroad. The international community had looked forward to a change in the foreign policy of the 2nd- term Bush administration while criticizing the unilateral and high-handed foreign policy of the U.S. whereby it ignited the Afghan and Iraqi wars, engulfing various parts of the world in wars. Challenging this, the present Bush administration has carried its foreign policy into extremes. It asserted a more high-handed and excessive role of the U.S. in handling global issues and let loose a whole string of provocative remarks such as an "axis of evil" and "outposts of tyranny". The April 26 issue of the New York Times in a by- lined article noted that the Bush administration committed the biggest mistake in its foreign policy in handling the north Korean issue. Its writer claimed that Bush's Korea policy triggered off resentment of north Korea, pushing it to the manufacture of nuclear weapons, resulted in increasing the possibility of the outbreak of the second Korean war and boosted the danger of Japan and other Asian countries going nuclear and the possibility of terrorists acquiring nuclear substance. {Kristof article http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30C1FFB39550C758EDDAD0894DD404482&incamp=archive:search}
• U.S. Envoy Met With North Korean Officials at U.N. By Glenn Kessler and Anthony Faiola
  Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, May 20, 2005; Page A14 After a public appeal from North Korea, a State Department envoy met with North Korean officials at the United Nations last week to reiterate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent statement that the Bush administration recognizes the reclusive country's sovereignty, U.S. officials said yesterday. The secret meeting, the first such back-channel communication in five months, was a U.S. attempt to prod North Korea back to six-nation disarmament talks, after similar efforts by such allies as China and South Korea. The North Korean officials did not respond, except to say they would pass the message to leaders in Pyongyang, the capital, but North Korea appeared to dismiss the rare direct assurances.
• Korean Editors' View of US Becomes Negative
  SEOUL (Yonhap) . South Korean senior journalists' perceptions of the United States swung significantly to the negative over the past 15 years, while their American counterparts' perceptions of Korea improved much, according to a survey result revealed on Tuesday. The research conducted by Lee Seong-hyong, a professor at Appalachian State University in the U.S. state of North Carolina, showed that Korean editors'positive perceptions of the U.S. dropped by 26 percentage points to 35 percent in 2005 from 61 percent 15 years ago. [SK attitude US]
• Hill Questions Seoul's Balancer Policy
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter A senior U.S. official has created a stir by reportedly criticizing South Korea's initiative move away from its traditional alliance with Washington and play a ``balancer role'' in Northeast Asia. Christopher Hill, U.S. assistant secretary of state and point man on the North Korean nuclear talks, ``looked annoyed'' when asked about the balancer policy and said Seoul would be better to stick close to Washington, according a report in the New York Times. Under the balancer doctrine, which was first outlined by President Roh Moo-hyun in March, Seoul aims to act as a strategic mediator between regional powers such as Japan, China and Russia. But the usually diplomatic Hill said South Korea should remember it is in a ``high-crime neighborhood'' and historically has been the victim of numerous invasions. ``If I were a South Korean looking into the future, I would be saying to myself, `I want a special relationship with a distant power,''' he was quoted as saying in an interview with the U.S. daily. [Friction] [Self delusion] [US Dominance]
• U.S. can't act alone in North
  EDITORIALS
  Vice Admiral Jonathan Greenert, commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, recently said that the Navy "would go in and help restore order in North Korea if there were instability or a regime failure." He added that refugees would try to get to Japan or escape elsewhere by sea; he called regime stability a "second-order problem," behind the North's military threat. These are very sensitive subjects that have implications for South Korea, as well as China and Russia. [Friction] [OPLAN] {self delusion}
• Security aide reportedly under a cloud
  May 18, 2005 ? A published report that Lee Jong- seok, a key national security adviser, is the subject of quiet government investigation into his handling of Korea's negotiations with the U.S. Forces Korea was denied yesterday by the Blue House. Munhwa Ilbo, a top evening newspaper, reported yesterday that the actions of a number of National Security Council officials, including Mr. Lee, were being reviewed to find out whether they had mishandled relations with the U.S. military over what American planners call "strategic flexibility" issues and an operational plan, code-named 5029. Strategic flexibility, part of Washington's new program to reposition its forces worldwide, and the 5029 plan, a contingency operation to prepare for possible sudden internal changes in North Korea, have been major issues between the Roh administration and the USFK. [OPLAN] [Friction]
• Tokyo paper says North is inviting Rice
  May 18, 2005 ? A leading financial daily in Tokyo, citing unidentified sources, reported yesterday that China has conveyed a message to the United States from North Korea, saying Pyongyang would welcome a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Both American and Japanese government officials questioned the veracity of the report. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said yesterday that Li Zhaoxing, China's foreign minister, relayed the message Friday in a phone conversation with Ms. Rice. Hiroyuki Hosoda, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, denied the report yesterday and repeated that the six-party talks were the best way to solve the North Korean nuclear crisis. An official with the U.S. Department of State said that no information about a request for a visit by Ms. Rice to North Korea had been received.
• Hill is wary of seeing Korean talks as positive
  May 17, 2005 ? Christopher Hill, Washington's special envoy to nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea, showed reluctance yesterday to view the current inter-Korean talks as a catalyst for reviving the suspended six-party negotiations over North Korea's nuclear arms program. Asked by a reporter whether he thought the meeting between the two Koreas was a good signal for the six-party talks, Mr. Hill said, "I am tired of looking at signals and reading tea leaves. I'll just be pleased when we have a date to start."
  Expressing hope the talks between South and North officials would lift chances for a resumption in the nuclear talks, Mr. Ban told Mr. Hill that the meeting between the two Koreas would serve "to make a breakthrough in the stalled South and North relationship." Mr. Ban also said that the talks would "create a favorable atmosphere for our common effort in resolving the North Korean nuclear issue." Mr. Hill responded saying the impasse in the disarmament talks could not go on indefinitely. "We are doing everything to get this six-party process going, but that does not mean we are not going to look eventually at other options because we have to." [Self delusion]
• Rodong Sinmun Slams U.S. New War Scenario against DPRK
  Pyongyang, May 15 (KCNA) -- "OPLAN 5029-05", a new war scenario against the DPRK recently worked out by the U.S. and south Korea, invests the U.S. armed forces stationed in south Korea with the right to command all military operations under a " special situation." The previous "operational plans" called on the U.S. Pacific Command to supervise the start of a war of aggression against the DPRK. However, the U.S.-south Korea "Combined Forces Command" is now given the mandate not only to work out a war scenario against the DPRK but carry out operations under the new scenario. Herein lie the nature and danger of "OPLAN 5029- 05" quite different from the previous plans.
• Rice's Vituperation against DPRK Refuted
  Pyongyang, May 14 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs Saturday gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA as regards a string of vituperation let loose again by U.S. Secretary of State Rice against the DPRK: Rice in her appearance on CNN chat on May 12 let loose a spate of sophism that the DPRK violated the 1994 DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework even before the ink of its signature to the agreement was dry, and asserted that its system is a "terrible regime" and it should be "reformed".
  The Bush group is the world's infamous tyrannical regime that should be radically reformed and changed. No one can deny that various parts of the world have turned into seas of blood and it has become turbulent since Bush's neo-conservative group came to power. It was none other than the Bush administration that scrapped the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework. We would like to cite some instances proving how it did. The DPRK fully implemented all its commitments such as freezing all its nuclear activities and perfectly ensuring the surveillance by IAEA inspector s according to the AF. But the Bush administration had not properly honored its commitments under the AF but acted diametrically contrary to it right after it came to power. Paragraph 1 of the AF commits the U.S. to providing light water reactors (LWR) to the DPRK by 2003. But only groundwork had been carried out for their construction in ten years. Under this paragraph the U.S. is also obliged to deliver heavy fuel oil to the DPRK every year until the construction of LWRs is completed. But it totally suspended this supply after inventing the rumor about the nonexistent "enriched uranium program" of the DPRK. Paragraph 2 calls on the DPRK and the U.S. to go in for fully normalizing the bilateral political and economic relations. The U.S., however, had persistently pursued its hostile policy and economic embargo and, worse still, listed the DPRK as part of "an axis of evil". Paragraph 3 commits the U.S. to giving its formal assurances that it will neither use nukes nor pose any nuclear threat to the DPRK. But, it designated the DPRK as a "target of preemptive nuclear attack", far from offering such assurances. Paragraph 4 requires the DPRK to accept nuclear inspection after the U.S. full delivery of non- nuclear parts, including LWR turbines and generators. Nevertheless, the U.S. had never honored any of its commitments but put pressure upon the DPRK to accept the nuclear inspection. In the long run, all the paragraphs of the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework had been scrapped due to the U.S. noncompliance with all its promises for ten years and what it called "enriched uranium program" cooked up by it to evade its responsibility for the non-compliance with them. This truth has been recognized by anyone of intelligence and reason. All the remarks of Rice prove that she is either a woman ignorant of the DPRK-U.S. history or a brazenfaced liar. We cannot but be confused by such incoherent remarks made by the secretary of State of the "superpower". Call a spade a spade.
• Seminar on Actions against U.S. Held in New York
  Pyongyang, May 15 (KCNA) -- A seminar titled "Peace on the Korean Peninsula and the U.S. forces in south Korea" was reportedly held in New York on May 10 under the sponsorship of the People for Achieving Peace and Reunification (Phyongthongsa) in south Korea. It was attended by representatives of civic and social organizations in south Korea including Phyongthongsa and the south Korean Association of A-Bomb Victims and activists of peace movements of Japan, the U.S. and Germany.
• US Denies Rice Invited to Pyongyang
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter
  Washington denied Tuesday a news report that North Korea has invited U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Pyongyang for discussions on the deepening dispute over its nuclear weapons programs. No invitation has been received for Rice to visit the reclusive communist country for bilateral talks, an unidentified official at the State Department in Washington said. The official was responding to a report by a Japanese business daily that North Korea has asked China to arrange a visit by the U.S. state secretary. ``Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing conveyed the North's request to Rice when the two spoke over the phone last Friday,'' the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, quoting diplomatic sources.
• U.S. Denounced for Taking Issue with DPRK's Penal System
  Pyongyang, May 13 (KCNA) -- The United States has shouted itself hoarse over the "human rights issue" of the DPRK and, as if it were not enough, is now peddling a ware taking issue even with its penal system under the national law, thus misleading public opinion. Commenting on this a Rodong Sinmun analyst Friday says: This does not deserve even a passing note, being intended to besmear the international image of the DPRK and topple its system. What matters is that the U.S., the worst human rights buser in the world which has the most nefarious penal system and engages itself in aggression,murder and interference in others' internal affairs every where in the world, is overreaching itself in talking rubbish about other's penal system. The U.S. is not in a position to wag its tongue about others' penal system. [human rights] [Double standards]
• Buddhist Leaders Visit Zaytun Unit
  Rev. Bub Jang, executive director of administration of the Chogye Order of Korean Buddhism, visited Iraq Thursday, to console the Korean soldiers of Zaytun Unit in Irbil, northern Iraq.
• American Journalists in Pyongyang
  U.S. television network ABC journalists are visiting North Korea to report the communist state's efforts for its own market- based economic reforms, a government official said Thursday. However, the official, who asked not to be named, declined to comment on details about how they arrived in North Korea or their itinerary. State-run KBS television reported on the same day, four ABC journalists are confirmed to arrive in Pyongyang on Tuesday, citing an unidentified government official. KBS reported the ABC journalists are seen planning to interview with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. [Economic reform]
• Envoy says U.S. won't act alone
  May 13, 2005 ? WASHINGTON ? South Korea's ambassador to the United States said Wednesday that the two countries have been in close consultation about the North Korean nuclear issue, and dismissed the possibility that Washington would use force against Pyongyang without consulting Seoul. "I can't think of a circumstance in which the U.S. government would make a critical decision without prior consultation with the South Korean government," Hong Seok-hyun told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. [Friction]
• National Cooperation Called for by Korean- Americans
  Pyongyang, May 11 (KCNA) -- It is the only way of preventing the Korean nation from going to ruin to combat flunkeyism towards the U.S. and realize national cooperation. Such unity of the Korean nation is more powerful than any type of nuclear weapon. An Internet homepage in the U.S., Minjok Thongsin, said this in its editor's commentary titled "Unity Is More Powerful than Nuke" posted on May 3. [Diaspora] [Joint Korean]
• US Worried Over NK Spy Infiltration
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter A U.S. official has expressed concern over the possibility of North Korean spies infiltrating the country posing as defectors. Arthur E. Dewey, U.S. assistant secretary for population, refugees and migration, said Washington is seeking ways to allow some North Korean refugees to settle in the United States but must consider national security issues first. ``We are cognizant of press reports noting that criminals, spies and Chinese citizens of Korean ethnicity have posed as North Korean refugees and were resettled in South Korea,'' he told a Congressional committee on April 28. The comments were released by the State Department earlier this week. [Refugee reception]
• 386 Generation's Anti-American Sentiment Due to US's Silence on the Gwangju Massacre
  MAY 12, 2005 23:29 by Seung-Ryun Kim (srkim@donga.com)
  Hong Seok-hyun, ambassador to the United States, stated on May 11 that "Korea's 386 generation is currently in the process of learning the importance of the Korea-US alliance." This speech on the "ROK-US Alliance for the Next Fifty Years," which he gave at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C., was his first public address since his appointment in February. {Kwangju} [human rights] [SK attitude US] [Anti-Americanism]
• US to Repatriate NK Defectors? Defectors
  by Barry Briggs May 11, 2005 - 04:37 AM Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required): A wave of North Koreans sneaking illegally into the U.S. in search of political asylum could end up testing the Bush administration's pledge to champion human rights in North Korea . About 100 North Koreans have arrived clandestinely in the U.S. since President Bush signed the North Korea Human Rights Act last October. But none of them will be allowed to stay if they are caught or apply for asylum, according to U.S. officials and in light of recent court rulings on North Korean asylum seekers in the U.S. That is because the human-rights bill offers U.S. asylum only if the North Koreans haven't gone to South Korea first. Many of the North Koreans now in the U.S. fled to neighboring China and were allowed to travel to and resettle in South Korea before heading to the U.S. Washington is reluctant to grant asylum to these North Koreans for fear of setting off a larger flood of refugees and angering China, whose cooperation the U.S. needs in the stalled six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear-weapons program. The U.S. is also wary of offending its South Korean ally, which might feel rebuked if the U.S. admits refugees who were already resettled in that democratic nation. North Korea views the human-rights legislation as an effort to subvert its regime. [Refugee reception]
• 'We Have Good Intentions Toward N. Korea'
  [Interview] U.S. diplomat Christopher R. Hill discusses the languishing six-party talks, nukes issue
  U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Christopher R. Hill, left, speaks with OhmyNews columnist Cheong Wook Sik at the State Department in Washington D.C., May 6, 2005.
  Let me start with the question about U.S. intentions toward North Korea. Secretary Rice said that the U.S. regards North Korea as a sovereign state. I think it is a very important message. Does this mean that your government has a willingness to coexist with North Korea peacefully?
  Christopher R. Hill: Yes. The secretary made it very clear that of course we don't question North Korea's status as a sovereign state and we certainly have no intention of attacking North Korea or anything like that. And that we are prepared to sit down with them and work out an agreement in the six-party process. But the North Koreans have instead chosen to go through her testimony and find three words they did not like -- outpost of tyranny -- and have chosen to be offended by those three words. And one has to really ask the question, are they serious about negotiating an end to their weapons programs and doing what we all want, which is to have a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula?
  But I think the United States has to express its willingness to North Korea for something like peaceful co-existence. Is this possible?
  Well, we have expressed our willingness but the problem is the North Koreans want to give us words that we must then repeat to them. What the North Koreans are trying to do is turn this into a sort of circus act ... In short, it is not a serious effort on their part. We will choose our own words, we will say things in the way we want to say them. We won't be dictated to by the North Koreans on that. So I think the secretary has made very clear our good intentions. [Spin]
• Kim Dae-jung Calls for Direct NK-US Talks
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter
  Former President Kim Dae-jung on Thursday urged North Korea and the United States to engage in direct talks, saying the standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs is entering a ``very ominous'' stage. ``The current situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula is reaching crisis point,'' Kim said during a lecture at Hanshin University in Osan, Kyonggi Province, referring to news reports that North Korea may be preparing to conduct a nuclear test. He said Washington and Pyongyang should urgently meet and hammer out a framework to resolve the deepening nuclear standoff. ``North Korea must completely abandon its nuclear programs and the United States must guarantee the security of North Korea and lift economic sanctions,'' said Kim, who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his ``sunshine'' policy of engaging the communist North. [US NK negotiations]
• NK Urges US to Scrap Arms Buildup Program
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - North Korea on Wednesday urged the United States to stop its multi-billion- dollar arms buildup program for its troops in South Korea, calling it a plot to invade the communist country, a North Korean newspaper said Wednesday.
• Despite U.S. Attempts, N. Korea Anything but Isolated
  Country's Regional Trade Boom Hints At Split Between Administration, E. Asia By Anthony Faiola Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, May 12, 2005; Page A18 SEOUL -- Some people may be worrying about a possible North Korean nuclear test, but Lee Ju Hong, a well-coiffed retail manager for South Korea's largest department store, is preoccupied with his latest sales event -- a North Korean kitchenware fair. North Korean housewares are the rage these days. The Lotte department store sold out its first shipment of North Korean pots and pans last December and followed up with a bigger sale in January, when another 7,000 pieces of cookware were carted off by eager shoppers. Lee, 39, is now working on the store's largest North Korean venture yet: New lines of cutlery and frying pans go on sale within the next two weeks.
  A public opinion survey in January by Research & Research, one of South Korea's largest pollsters, asked this question: "Which country is the most threatening to South Korea?" Of the 800 respondents, 39 percent named the United States, which maintains 37,000 troops here. North Korea came in second, at 33 percent. [Sanctions] [Exports] [SK attitude NK] [SK attitude US] [Anti-Americanism]
• Same War Plan against North
  Pyongyang, May 10 (KCNA) -- The United States and the south Korean authorities concerned are now going through the motion of changing the name of "OPLAN 5029" they had worked out allegedly to counter an "emergency" in the north into "CONPLAN 5029." Commenting on this, a Minju Joson analyst Tuesday says: This is no more than a crafty ruse to cover up the aggressive nature of the adventurous war plan against the north and lull the public opinion denouncing it. Under whatever signboard the United States may work out a military plan, it is itself one for attacking the north and destroying its system.
• `New York Channel' Emerges for 6-Party Nuke Talks
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter With the multilateral talks on North Korea's nuclear standoff with the United States running idle for nearly a year, the ``New York channel'' between the two main antagonists is emerging as a possible method to jump-start the stalled talks. But officials in Seoul and Washington said yesterday that the informal contact in New York will not likely take place right away. They also made it clear that the channel, even if utilized in the future, will not be a venue for full- scale bilateral negotiations. ``The New York channel obviously exists and it remains open, and we'll use it when we deem it appropriate, as we have in the past,'' acting State Department spokesman Tom Casey told a news briefing. However, he noted, ``It's not a negotiating channel, it's not a replacement or substitute for the six-party talks,'' adding the U.S. doesn't have any plans at the present to go to New York or to use the New York channel at this point in time. On Nov. 30 and Dec. 3 last year, American officials had two rounds of talks with their North Korean counterparts in New York over the resumption of the six-party talks to end the dispute over the North's nuclear weapons programs.
• North's overture gets rapid Rice response
  May 11, 2005 ? In a prompt response to a North Korean statement that it wanted to clarify U.S. views on the six-party nuclear disarmament talks, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice repeated yesterday that Washington regards the North as a sovereign state and that bilateral talks within the framework of six-party negotiations are possible. "I'll just restate that the United States, of course, recognizes that North Korea is sovereign," Ms. Rice said in an interview in Moscow, where she attended ceremonies to mark the end of World War II. "It's obvious. They're a member of the United Nations." Speaking of direct talks between the United States and North Korea, she said, "We have been in negotiations in a six-party framework before with the North Koreans." Restating that Washington has no intention to attack or invade the North, she said that Pyongyang had much to gain by returning to the talks, including aid and security assurances.
• Bolton Talk On N. Korea Apparently Was Cleared
  Wednesday, May 11, 2005; Page A06 Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton gave a provocative speech on July 31, 2003, on North Korea that has attracted significant attention during his confirmation battle to become U.N. ambassador. Thomas Hubbard, a former ambassador to South Korea, said the speech displeased him. Then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage was "very mad" about the speech, a top aide to former secretary of state Colin L. Powell said. And the North Korean government denounced Bolton at the time for his remarks on leader Kim Jong Il.
  Democrats have suggested that Bolton's staff did not get full clearance for the speech. But a State Department official provided copies yesterday of e-mails between the staff and other government agencies indicating that relevant officials had signed off on the speech a week before it was given. The first e-mail, sent on the morning of July 23, went to the National Security Council, the Defense Department, the office of the vice president, and top officials in the State Department, including Armitage's office. It included a draft of the speech, then titled "The Kim Jong Il Dictatorship: A Legacy of Tyranny and Squandered Opportunities," and asked for comments by noon the next day. The title gave a hint of its unusual quality -- it personalized many of the complaints U.S. officials had made about the North Korean government, referring to Kim more than 40 times.
  Over the next two days, a variety of relatively minor comments were received. The Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs -- which oversees the ambassador in Seoul -- cleared the speech without a comment. Armitage's special assistant suggested toning down one line, though he acknowledged he may be quibbling. "Good speech," he added. -- Glenn Kessler [Dissension][Vituperation]
• Relocation of Japan-based U.S. forces Flailed
  Pyongyang, May 8 (KCNA) -- The U.S. bellicose forces fixed what they call north Korea's nuclear program danger line and are now spreading the "fiction of war crisis," frantically stepping up war preparations to invade the northern half of Korea, which indicates their intention to attack the DPRK any moment, says Rodong Sinmun Sunday in a signed article. They move to bring the First Army Corps Command to Japan from the U.S. mainland, realize the merger of the U.S. 13th Air Force Command in Guam and the U.S. 5th Air Force Command in Yokoda, Japan, and turn the whole of Japan archipelago into a base of strategic importance for a preemptive attack of aggression, the article says, and goes on; [US military]
• North seeks to verify U.S. views
  May 10, 2005 ? North Korea says it wants to hold bilateral working-level talks with the United States in order to verify reports that Washington will recognize North Korea as a sovereign state and hold direct negotiations with Pyongyang's representatives if the six- party nuclear disarmament talks resume. On Sunday, Pyongyang said it wanted to sit down with U.S. officials to confirm Washington's positions. "There were only press reports that the U.S. is ready to recognize the DPRK as a sovereign state and hold bilateral talks within the framework of the six-party talks," the North Korean Foreign Ministry said through the state-run Korea Central News Agency. DPRK stands for North Korea's formal name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "If there is any request from our side, we only express our intention to directly meet the U.S. side to confirm whether those reports are true before making a final determination," the ministry said. "This does not mean any intention to hold the DPRK- U.S. talks for discussing the issues between them. What we mean is a simple working procedure for confirming the U.S. stance in the true sense of the word." Chon Hyun-joon, a researcher with the Korea Institute for National Unification, saw the stament as an effort to calm the escalated tension on the peninsula. "Pyongyang does not want the situation to end up in a catastrophe," Mr. Chon said yesterday. "The statement appears positive."
• US Strike on N. Korea `Unfeasible'
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter A military option against North Korea can be held as a possible card to keep the North from joining the nuclear club, but it seems impossible at the moment for the United States to launch a preemptive attack or surgical strike, experts say. As North Korea has accelerated its nuclear drive in recent weeks to bring the regional tension to a peak with its traditional brinkmanship tactics, media outlets have raised speculations about the possibilities of a nuclear test by the North and a military campaign by the U.S. to thwart it. However, without mature conditions for such an option and due to strong objection by its allies, a U.S. military campaign remains an unfeasible plan for the time being, officials and experts said yesterday. [Friction]
• US Copter Units to Be Integrated
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The United States Forces Korea (USFK) will consolidate its helicopter units into a single, multifunctional aviation brigade by June as part of its troop relocation plan, a U.S. military newspaper published in Seoul said Monday. The Stars and Stripes reported that the USFK will ``merge its helicopter assets into a single and all-purpose aviation unit,'' including all types of military helicopters except for those designed for special operations work, in mid-June. The main purpose of creating the integrated aviation unit is to make it easier for commanders to manage helicopter forces and to mix them for short-term battle tasks, it said.
  Washington plans to transform its troops into an easily deployable force to any region in an emergency, in accordance with the fast-changing security environment. [US Military]
• No. 2 at State Dept. Was Said to Put Restrictions on Bolton
  By DOUGLAS JEHL Published: May 10, 2005 WASHINGTON, May 9 - A new portrayal of John R. Bolton describes him as having so angered senior State Department officials with his public comments that the deputy secretary of state, Richard L. Armitage, ordered two years ago that Mr. Bolton be blocked from delivering speeches and testimony unless they were personally approved by Mr. Armitage. The detailed account was provided to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by Lawrence S. Wilkerson, a longtime aide to former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. Mr. Wilkerson said that Mr. Bolton, who was then an under secretary of state, had caused "problems" by speaking out on North Korea, the International Atomic Energy Agency and other delicate issues in remarks that had not been properly cleared. "Therefore, the deputy made a decision, and communicated that decision to me, that John Bolton would not give any testimony, nor would he give any speech, that wasn't cleared first by Rich," Mr. Wilkerson said, according to a transcript of an hourlong interview with members of the committee staff last Thursday. In an e-mail message on Monday, Mr. Wilkerson said of the restrictions imposed on Mr. Bolton that "if anything, they got more stringent" as time went on. "No one else was subjected to these tight restrictions," he said. [Dissension]
• Powell Aide Says Armitage, Bolton Clashed
  Apparent Supporter of U.N. Nominee Said to Have Questioned His Diplomatic Tone By Glenn Kessler
  Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, May 10, 2005; Page A02
  Former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage, who last week appeared to endorse John R. Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador, had frequent battles with Bolton over his diplomatic tone, a top aide to former secretary of state Colin L. Powell said in an interview released yesterday by Senate investigators. Larry Wilkerson, Powell's chief of staff, said Armitage was furious about a provocative speech Bolton gave on North Korea in July 2003, though the State Department noted that Armitage's office had approved it. Armitage also ordered the delay of congressional testimony Bolton planned on Syria's weapons programs at the time, he added.
  In an interview Friday with Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff, Wilkerson said he was "somewhat" surprised by Armitage's statement last week about Bolton "because I worked with Rich closely" at the State Department. His testimony adds to a portrait of frequent policy conflicts between the strong-willed Bolton, the undersecretary for arms control, and his bureaucratic rivals in the foreign policy and intelligence fields. A committee vote on Bolton's nomination is planned for Thursday. Armitage told the Associated Press last week that Bolton is "eminently qualified" and "one of the smartest guys in Washington," adding that he supports "the president's choice." [Dissension]
• Total Cancellation of "5029" War Scenario Demanded
  Pyongyang, May 6 (KCNA) -- Recently the U.S. and the south Korean authorities concerned held a huddle over the issue of renaming "OPLAN 5029", a very dangerous scenario of war against the north allegedly aimed at coping with a "contingency" to be created there, the "Notion Plan 5029". In this regard, a spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland issued a statement on Friday. The "Notion Plan 5029" is nothing different from "OPLAN 5029" in essence as both are anti-north war scenarios presupposing a military intervention in case of an emergency, the statement noted, and continued: The mere change of the name of a scenario would never reduce its aggressive and dangerous nature. By origin, the "OPLAN 5029" is intolerable as its appearance and existence is a total negation of the north and a grave challenge to it. Therefore, it should be nullified unconditionally and totally.
• Rex Reed makes derogatory comments about Koreans
  03.30.2005 In his review of the Korean film "Oldboy" published in the March 28, 2005 issue of The New York Observer, Rex Reed writes: "For sewage in a cocktail shaker, there is Oldboy, a noxious helping of Korean Grand Guignol as pointless as it is shocking. What else can you expect from a nation weaned on kimchi, a mixture of raw garlic and cabbage buried underground until it rots, dug up from the grave and then served in earthenware pots sold at the Seoul airport as souvenirs?" [Vituperation]
• Base security boosted after Irbil bomb blast
  May 06, 2005 ? In the aftermath of a deadly terrorist attack in the Kurdish city of Irbil in northern Iraq, which killed at least 60 and left hundreds injured, South Korean forces stationed in the area raised their alert status, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday. The attack occurred Wednesday inside a police recruitment center in the southern part of the town, eight kilometers (five miles) from where the Korean troops are based.
• Cult of Kim complicates nuclear dispute
  By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune True or not, they show how pervasive a personality cult prevails in North Korea and why the regime reacts emotionally to President George W. Bush, who called Kim a "tyrant" last week. North Korea later condemned Bush as a "world dictator" and a "philistine." Such an exchange between protagonists in a conflict over North Korea's nuclear weapons programs, coupled with North Korea's provocative missile test on Sunday, makes other countries wonder whether the sides were drifting farther away from a negotiated settlement. "It doesn't help," Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min Soon of South Korea said Monday. "It's not right, not just for the countries being slandered, but also in terms of courtesy for other countries which are trying to help resolve this matter." Bush's blunt manner of speaking presents the Communist North with a predicament: How to deal with someone who calls the leader a "dictator" and a "pigmy" while telling the people that the leader is a godlike saint? [Friction] [Vituperation] [Victim]
• Inside Story about U.S. Arms Buildup Plan Disclosed
  Pyongyang, May 2 (KCNA) -- It has been disclosed that the U.S. arms build-up plan envisaged even the capacity of rapid deployment of the U.S. forces in case of "emergency" on the Korean Peninsula, according to south Korean KBS. The U.S. Forces Command in south Korea said that the plan calls for the capability to rapidly hurl its marines in Okinawa and Striker unit in the U.S. mainland into the Korean Peninsula and promptly deploy military hardware in case of "emergency" there. The U.S. imperialist bellicose elements are now leaving no stone unturned to mount a preemptive attack on the DPRK and stifle it, while putting the scenarios of a war against it into more concrete shapes.
• U.S. Condemned for Describing DPRK as "Terrorism- Supporting State"
  Pyongyang, May 2 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs today gave the following answer to a question raised by KCNA in connection with the fact that the U.S. took issue with the DPRK again over the issue of terrorism: The U.S. State Department made public an "annual report on terrorism in 2004" on April 28, which designated the DPRK again as a "terrorism-supporting state". It is, indeed, ridiculous that the U.S., the kingpin of state-sponsored terrorism and the biggest terrorism-supporting state, makes public a "report on terrorism" every year and brands anti-U.S., independent countries as "terrorism- supporting ones" . Given the fact that, although the Bush administration admitted the DPRK has no record of terrorism, it termed the DPRK a "terrorism- supporting state" again over the "issue of abduction" which had been completely resolved between the DPRK and Japan, we can clearly know how frantic it is getting in its ambition to overturn the system in the DPRK. . We have been disgusted with its clumsy moves. . The U.S. more undisguised move to stifle the DPRK only hardens its determination to continuously go the way it has already chosen.
• North Korea's Nuclear Program
  David Kang Co-author, "Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies." Wednesday, May 4, 2005; 3:00 PM
  North Korea recently fired a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan, reminding its neighbors once again of its desire to intimidate and the potential consequences of its nuclear weapons program. The U.S. denounced the action while expressing cautious hope that the six-party talks with China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, which have been stalled since June, would be resumed. This was the most recent in a series of similar tests conducted by North Korea, whose leader Kim Jong Il has openly expressed hostility toward the U.S. What is the significance of this most recent move? What is the status of North Korea's nuclear program? David Kang , co-author of "Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies," and an associate professor of government at Dartmouth College, was online to take your questions about North Korea [Bizarre] [Public opinion]
• NK May Send Mission to US: Report
  Representatives of religious organizations within North Korea might visit the United States June 20, Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday. The agency reported that South Korean and American religious groups are jointly arranging the participation of the delegation from Pyongyang, quoting an unidentified source in Seoul. ``At this moment, we can not know for sure whether they will be able to come to the United States or not,'' the source said. ``They have been requesting extreme security on dialogue over the possible visit.'' The North Korea mission is expected to include North Korean Red Cross Chairman Jang Jae-on and an unconfirmed number of officials from Kim Il-sung University. kkt@koreatimes.co.kr
• KCNA on U.S. Dangerous Military Moves
  Pyongyang, April 30 (KCNA) -- The U.S. has gone into extremes in its wild ambition to establish its political and military domination over the Asia-Pacific region. The U.S. is contemplating replacing the present system whereby the U.S. troops are stationed in limited regions and countries on a permanent basis by a new system whereby they are reorganized into "task forces" having fast maneuverability and armed with high- tech hardware to be deployed in different parts of the world.
• U.S. Aerial Espionage against DPRK in April
  Pyongyang, April 30 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists perpetrated more than 170 cases of aerial espionage against the DPRK in April by mobilizing strategic and tactical reconnaissance planes with different missions, according to military sources. At least 30 cases of aerial espionage were committed by U-2, overseas-based RC-135, E-3 and EP-3. Such tactical reconnaissance planes as RC-12, RC- 7B involved numbered eight on April 8 and 11 each and seven on April 4, 7, 22 and 28 each. Such type reconnaissance planes made shuttle flights day and night in the sky above the areas of Phochon, Chunchon and Rinje to spy on the important military targets of the north in the forefront areas. This indicates that after working out the "OPLAN 5029-05" under the pretext of coping with a "contingency" the U.S. imperialists are keen to realize their wild ambition to invade the DPRK by a surprise attack on it.
• FM Spokesman Slams Bush's Vituperation against DPRK's Supreme Headquarters
  Pyongyang, April 30 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question raised by KCNA Saturday to accuse Bush of letting loose a spate of vituperation against the supreme headquarters of the DPRK: At a press conference Friday Bush again slandered the supreme headquarters of the DPRK. It is our firm stand neither to pardon nor overlook anyone who slanders the supreme headquarters of the DPRK. Bush is a hooligan bereft of any personality as a human being, to say nothing of stature as president of a country. He is a half-baked man in terms of morality and a philistine whom we can never deal with. It is well known from long ago. No one can expect to hear reasonable words from Bush, once a cowboy at a ranch in Texas. His remarks often stun audience as they reveal his utter ignorance. What the Bush rogue group has done since his coming to power in the U.S. styling itself a "super power" is nothing but having turned various parts of the world into a sea of blood. Bush is, indeed, a world dictator whose hands are stained with the blood shed by innocent civilians. Peace can never settle in the world as long as Bush stays in power. The DPRK does not expect any solution to the nuclear issue or any progress in the DPRK-U.S. relations during his term. Bush never forgot to mention the third party whenever he referred to the nuclear issue although the DPRK and the U.S. are the parties directly concerned with it. This is no more than a trick to shift the blame on to the third party. Over more than four years since Bush's inauguration the DPRK has shown utmost magnanimity and patience. It can no longer do so, waiting for any shift in the U.S. policy. Quite just is the path chosen by us and we will keep to it, with our chests thrown out.
• Rice Rattles Saber at N. Korea
  U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday her country had the capability in the Asia-Pacific region to deter anything North Korea threatens to do. Rice was responding to a question how the U.S. was handling the North Korean missile threat in a press conference following a meeting with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier. "The United States maintains significant, and I want to underline significant, deterrent capability of all kinds in the Asia-Pacific region," she said. "So I don't think there should be doubt about our ability to deter whatever the North Koreans are up to." According to Reuters, Rice's comment were meant to stress that although the U.S. no longer has nuclear weapons in South Korea, it has long-range missiles, bombers and aircraft carriers capable of striking North Korea.
• Korean legislator: LaPorte says no strike plans
  May 03, 2005 ? Amid heightened rhetoric over the North Korean nuclear issue, and a short-range missile launch by North Korea Sunday that both Seoul and Washington downplayed,_the commander of the U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command assured Korean lawmakers yesterday that the United States is not planning a pre-emptive strike on North Korea's nuclear facilities, according to a lawmaker who was present. General Leon LaPorte also stressed that the United States is still committed to a diplomatic solution, and told the audience of National Assembly members that any military action would be based on a consensus between the presidents of the United States and South Korea, according to Song Young-sun, a Grand National Party lawmaker who serves on the National Assembly's defense committee. General LaPorte made his comments at a closed- door meeting of a 13-member National Assembly security forum, which includes lawmakers from both the opposition Grand National and governing Uri parties, as well as the Democratic Labor Party. Ms. Song heads the forum.
  "The missile that North Korea recently fired is a short-range missile and is far from being the kind that can carry a nuclear weapon," Song Min- soon, South Korea's chief negotiator for the six- party nuclear disarmament talks, said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency yesterday. "This isn't a case to be linked to the nuclear dispute," Mr. Song said. South Korean military sources say the missile appeared to be a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 120 kilometers (75 miles). [Friction] [US military dominance]
• US Attack on NK Needs Consensus From South Korea
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Any military action against North Korea will be conducted based on a consensus between South Korea and the United States, Gen Leon J. LaPorte, commander of the United States Forces Korea (USFK), said Monday. Attending the inauguration ceremony of a lawmakers' forum on security issues at the National Assembly in Seoul, the USFK chief said the U.S. administration will inform the South Korean government of any possible plan on military actions against the North before implementing it, according to Rep. Song Young- sun of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP). Song also quoted LaPorte as saying that the U.S. has no ``intention'' to conduct a preemptive strike on Pyongyang, stressing the Bush administration's position that the standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons programs should be resolved through dialogue.
  LaPorte's remarks came amid controversy over a military contingency plan, which has been pursued by the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) since last year. The plan, codenamed ``5029-05,'' laid out military responses to various levels of internal trouble in the communist country, including the regime collapse, mass defections and revolt. But the presidential National Security Council demanded that the CFC stop formulating the operational plan last January, saying that the plan could infringe upon the country's sovereignty and capability to ensure peace on the Korean Peninsula, the Defense Ministry confirmed last month. [Friction] [US military dominance]
• Rice to N. Korea: U.S. Can Defend Itself
  By BARRY SCHWEIDThe Associated Press Monday, May 2, 2005; 10:04 PM WASHINGTON -- Talking tough, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice informed North Korea on Monday the United States is able to defend itself and its allies against nuclear and missile threats. Responding to reports that North Korea launched a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday, Rice said, "I don't think there should be any doubt about our ability to deter whatever the North Koreans are up to." [Bizarre]
• NK Slams Bush for Slander of Kim
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - North Korea on Saturday lashed out against U.S. President George W. Bush for his ``slander'' of the country's leader Kim Jong-il. ``Bush is a hooligan bereft of any personality as a human being, to say nothing of stature as president of a country. He is a half-baked man in terms of morality and a philistine whom we can never deal with,'' a spokesman for the country's Foreign Ministry said.
• 'Bush is a hooligan,' North Korea says
  May 02, 2005 ? In response to U.S. President George W. Bush's remarks Thursday in which he labeled North Korean leader Kim Jong-il a "tyrant," Pyongyang called Bush a "hooligan" over the weekend. Quoting a ministry spokesman on Saturday, North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency said, "Bush is a hooligan bereft of any personality as a human being." The agency also said Pyongyang did not expect a solution to the nuclear issue during Mr. Bush's term.
• U.S. Denounces North Korea After Reports of Missile Test
  By BRIAN KNOWLTON International Herald Tribune Published: May 2, 2005
  WASHINGTON, May 1 - North Korea apparently launched a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday, a move likely to raise tensions on the eve of a United Nations conference on nuclear nonproliferation. Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, confirmed that a missile appeared to have been fired into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. With the language used by both sides sharpening, Mr. Card denounced the North Koreans as "bullies" and called their leader, Kim Jong Il, "not a good person." [Bizarre] [NPT]
• Seoul proposes discussing collapse plan with U.S.
  May 02, 2005 ? A U.S. official said yesterday that South Korea has proposed to continue updating a joint military plan that would be implemented in the event North Korea suddenly collapsed. Lee Jong-seok, a senior South Korean official on the National Security Council, made the proposal during a visit to Washington at the end of last month, according to the Pentagon source. "He said that with the agreement of both nations, the plan should be maintained and developed," the official said. The source added that Richard Lawless, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Affairs, promised to give an answer to the proposal as soon as possible. The Roh administration said previously it terminated the plan? code-named Operations Plan 5029 ? in January because of concerns it could violate Korea's sovereignty. [OPLAN]
• Scent of McCarthyism is in the air
  If I may borrow from the rhetoric of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels' work, "Manifesto of the Communist Party," which begins, "A spectre is haunting Europe ? the spectre of communism," I would like to ask, "Is a spectre of McCarthyism haunting South Korea right now?" At the beginning of the Cold War in the early 1950s, liberal bureaucrats, journalists and celebrities in the United States were branded as sympathizers of communism at secret hearings led by the extreme right-wing politician, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. The damage inflicted on the reputations of innocent people came to be known as McCarthyism There is a definite scent of Korean McCarthyism in the air. Koreans who are, according to President Roh Moo-hyun, "more pro-American than Americans themselves," and those who speak fluent English, as Senior Presidential Secretary for Public Information Cho Ki-suk explained, try to read other people's minds and refrain from expressing their opinion freely. [Pro-Americanism]
• U.S.-North Korea insults get personal
  By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune MONDAY, MAY 2, 2005 SEOUL North Korea said it would reject any settlement of the nuclear weapons dispute as long as the United States was led by President George W. Bush, whom a North Korean official called a "cowboy." Meanwhile, the United States reportedly warned allies that North Korea might be ready to carry out an underground nuclear test as early as June. "Bush is a hooligan bereft of any personality as a human being, to say nothing of stature as president of a country," a spokesman of the North Korean Foreign Ministry told the country's official news agency, KCNA, on Saturday. The official also described Bush as a "half-baked man in terms of morality," a "philistine whom we can never deal with" and a "world dictator whose hands are stained with the blood shed by innocent civilians." The comments were a reaction to a White House news conference Thursday in which Bush described the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, as a "tyrant" and a "dangerous person" who starved his people and ran "huge concentration camps."
• Bush lambastes Kim Jong-il as 'dangerous'
  April 30, 2005 ? At a White House press briefing, U.S. President George W. Bush renewed his administration's verbal assaults on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, denouncing him as "a dangerous person" and "a tyrant." Mr. Bush also raised concerns about North Korea's ability to deliver nuclear weapons, adding that the U.S.-led missile defense system is being designed precisely to counter such capabilities. "Kim Jong-il is a dangerous person," Mr. Bush told the reporters. "He's a man who starves his people. He's got huge concentration camps." In recent months, Pyongyang has demanded that Washington end its hostility toward North Korea. While emphasizing that ending the nuclear crisis through the six-nation talks is the best option, Mr. Bush did not rule out others, including referring the issue to the UN Security Council, or even military action.
• North Korea Labels Bush a 'Dictator'
  Statement Widens Gulf in Nuclear Crisis By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, May 1, 2005; Page A22 North Korea lashed out at President Bush yesterday for comments he made about the country's leader, Kim Jong Il, at a news conference Thursday, asserting that the North Korean nuclear impasse will never be resolved while Bush remains in office. Bush is "a half-baked man in terms of morality and a philistine whom we can never deal with," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. The statement described Bush as the "world's dictator," who as president had "turned the world into a sea of blood."
• U.S. Faces Difficulty in Accommodating North Korean Defectors
  APRIL 29, 2005 23:34 by Soon-Taek Kwon (maypole@donga.com)
  "North Korean residents and some aid groups have unrealistic expectations of our ability to directly support North Korean defectors." On April 28, Arthur E. Gene Dewey, the assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, said above at a hearing on the enforcement of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 held by the House International Relations Committee's subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. Dewey added that "there is a limit to accommodating North Korean defectors due to the domestic situation in the U.S., international relations, and the maintenance of safe routes used by defectors." [Refugee reception]
• ROK-U.S. Agreement Should Change Attitude towards North Korea
  [Editorial] APRIL 25, 2005 23:40
  Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon warned North Korea that "if [North Korea] conducts any nuclear tests, it will be further isolating itself." During meetings between Christopher Hill, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for State East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Korean government`s security members yesterday, the two sides agreed that "North Korea should not worsen the matter." Some wonder if the situation has become much more serious considering the fact that the government's attitude has changed so drastically. It is especially unnerving to see the foreign minister react this way to rumors of nuclear tests from a foreign source. While it is good to see South Korea and the United States agree on the issue for once, it could be that the United States has sent a warning message of sorts to South Korea, and this warning could have influenced the government's reaction. It cannot be denied that the government's conciliatory policy has caused a large rift between Korea and the United States, and that may have worsened the situation. [Friction]
• Korean Middle Class Lives by Manual Labor in the U.S.
  APRIL 26, 2005 23:30
  The uncertainty about the future and desire to secure better education for their children have driven many Koreans with relatively higher education to move to farming towns in the U.S., and many of them are earning their living by manual labor, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution of Atlanta, GA on April 24. The following is a summary of the article. Kim Jae-sul (42) ran his own private educational institution for Math, Science, and Language In Busan. He used to go to tennis or drive to the suburbs on weekends. Kim paid $ 10,000 (or 10 million won) to an immigration broker and came to Georgia, along with his family, including two teenage daughters. Kim works in a chicken farm located in Claxton, a small city in southeast Georgia. This eye-glassed man grabbed a carving knife instead of a pen with his skinny hand. Wearing working clothes, boots, and gloves, he earns $7 an hour, chopping off chicken wings. "Working in the chicken farm is hard, but this is all for the better education for my children and a better life," he said.

• June date seems likely for Roh-Bush meeting
  April 29, 2005 ? WASHINGTON ? President Roh Moo- hyun's desire for an early meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush has been accepted by the White House, South Korean officials here said yesterday. Though no date has been set, Hong Seok-hyun, South Korea's ambassador to the United States, said Wednesday that "before long, Seoul and Washington will make an official announcement that they will hold a summit. The two leaders will engage in a meaningful and in-depth discussion with ample time."
• North Korea remains on U.S. terror list
  April 29, 2005 ? The United States continues to label North Korea a state sponsor of terror, the latest release of its annual terrorism report shows. The report, issued Wednesday, notes North Korea is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since it bombed a Korean Air flight in 1987. But the State Department called North Korea, along with Iran, Cuba, Syria, Libya and Sudan, a state sponsor of terror. "State sponsors of terrorism impede the efforts of the United States and the international community to fight terrorism," it said. "These countries provide a critical foundation for terrorist groups." Since 1988, Washington has included Pyongyang on its list of sponsors of terror every year. Despite joining anti-terror conventions, Pyongyang has failed to show efforts to combat terrorism, the report said
• Rice's Reckless Remarks Ridiculed
  Pyongyang, April 27 (KCNA) -- U.S. Secretary of State Rice, while justifying the Iraqi war started by the U.S. recently, blustered that though the information about north Korea's nuclear program is insufficient, the whole world should strongly react to it. These reckless remarks come under fire by a signed commentary of Rodong Sinmun Wednesday. Her remarks reveal the U.S. efforts to create an international atmosphere for putting pressure upon the DPRK over the nuclear issue and its design for mounting a preemptive attack on it, the commentary observes, and goes on: Given the fact that Rice is the chief architect of the U.S. foreign policy, her outcries provided the army and the people of the DPRK with an opportunity to clearly reconfirm the Bush administration's purpose of its policy towards the DPRK.
• Roh, Bush to Hold Summit
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter President Roh Moo-hyun may visit the United States in as early as June to meet President George W. Bush in a summit, which will likely be a crucial turning point for the North Korean nuclear standoff, according to officials on Thursday. South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Hong Seok- hyun announced in Washington that South Korea and the U.S. have made ``considerable progress'' in talks to arrange a summit meeting, possibly in the first half of this year.
• S. Korea Reluctant to Join US-Led Security Initiative
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter With North Korea's nuclear issue standing at the crossroads, the American-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) is once again emerging as a possible means to sanction the reclusive country. Seoul, however, still seems reluctant, according to officials. Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a Japanese daily, reported on Thursday that U.S. administration officials decided to demand that South Korea and China, which have economic ties with the socialist North Korea, join the PSI. The news report comes just days after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice touted the security initiative, which allows for the seizure of missiles and other potential components of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) while they are being transferred at sea or in the air. [Friction] [Interdiction]
• The Mistake of Anti-Americanism
  By Jordan Dover The United States is in an increasingly precarious position due to the rise of anti- Americanism and the negative implications that follow. It should come as no surprise that many in this world despise the United States and reject its leadership and there are clear indications that this trend is likely to continue.
  All too often these days people are making the error of loosely defining anti-Americanism to mean any negative sentiment toward America, therefore complicating international relations and conflict resolution. A dislike, or even hatred for President Bush should not be misconstrued as anti-Americanism. If this were so, genuine patriots would be anti-American. Half of my friends would be anti-American. I would be anti-American
• Is an Independent GPS System 'Anti-U.S.'?
  Since the Pentagon-built system can be turned off at any time, other nations are building their own "Monday morning, the Seoul Traffic Control Room was at a complete standstill due to a flood of angry phone calls from enraged citizens. One irate citizen said he was charged 100,000 won (US$100) for taking the bus from Jongno 3-ga to Gwanghwamun. Drivers on the streets were also confused. Car navigation screens read only "NO SIGNAL," resulting in very angry drivers. On the television, there were reports of a large container ship suddenly going off course and running aground as it tried to enter the port of Busan. At 6 a.m. on June 26, 2006, the U.S. blocked GPS signals to the entirety of the Korean Peninsula."
  This is a hypothetical scenario that could arise if the U.S. were to shut off GPS (Global Positioning System) signals in the airspace over Korea as the Korea-U.S. relationship deteriorates. [Friction]
• U.S. Will Pursue "Common Approach" to North Korea, Bush Says
  Full text of press conference 28 April 2005 President pledges to work with Pyongyang's neighbors to solve problem diplomatically President Bush said the United States will coordinate with North Korea's neighbors to develop a consensus and a common approach to meet the challenge posed by Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program through diplomatic means. Speaking April 28 at a White House press conference focused upon energy and social security reform, Bush said the United States aims to work with China, Japan, Russia and South Korea to achieve the common goal of a nuclear free Korean peninsula. Asked if the United States would unilaterally refer the issue to the United Nations Security Council, Bush said, "What we want to do is to work with our allies on this issue and develop a consensus, a common approach to the consequences of Kim Jong Il. It seems counterproductive to have five of us working together and all of a sudden one of us say, 'Well, we're not going to work together.'" The president said all options are on the table, but "our aim is to solve this problem diplomatically" with the other members of the Six-Party Talks. The bilateral approach between the United States and North Korea during the 1990s "didn't work," Bush said, because Kim Jong Il "said he was going to do something and he didn't do it." [missile defense] [Friction]
• North Koreans escape - for a price
  By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2005
  SEOUL To supporters, they are heroic saviors who risk their lives to help North Koreans escape a country that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of the United States called an "outpost of tyranny." To critics, they are despicable swindlers who have commercialized human rights. To most people, they are simply known as "brokers." Years ago, North Korean defectors were so rare that the South Korean authorities welcomed them with outdoor rallies, car parades and a lecture circuit filled with anti-Communist propaganda. Recently, however, their arrivals have become so routine they hardly draw much attention. Leading this phenomenon is a network of "brokers," or people who specialize in helping North Korean defectors reach South Korea. Their fees range from two million to 20 million Korean won, or about $1,995 to $19,950. Hundreds of brokers - many of them North Korean defectors with South Korean passports or ethnic Koreans in China - operate in China and Southeast Asia. Armed with global positioning devices, cellphones and local handlers, they organize months-long covert operations. Some work independently; others with missionaries and human rights activists.
  "I thought I was helping the North Koreans. Now I can't sleep very well when I think about what could have happened to the North Koreans," Oh said. "There was a financial and political motive behind the project. And I feel guilty to have been part of it."
• Korea, U.S. join up in Afghan mission
  April 28, 2005 ? South Korean and U.S. military forces conducted a joint medical mission in Afghanistan, 120 kilometers (70 miles) southeast of the capital Kabul, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday. At the request of the governor of Kabul, a contingent of 41 South Korean military technicians and U.S. troops conducted the two- day mission. U.S. soldiers provided protection for the Koreans.
• Ceremony Marks S. Korea's Aid to Iraq
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea held a ceremony with a northern Iraqi provincial government on Wednesday to mark the nation's provision of aid to the Kurdish- controlled town of Irbil, where 3,250 Korean soldiers are stationed on a rehabilitation mission, officials said.
• From Seoul and Washington, 2 views of North Korea
  James Brooke The New York Times
  WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2005 SEOUL For Bush administration strategists, a quarantine of North Korea means searching trucks, trains and planes for nuclear materials smuggled out of the cash-hungry "rogue nation." But South Korea, a strong advocate of engagement, has already set up its own quarantine of North Korea this spring. An outbreak of bird flu at poultry farms near Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, has forced the South to spray disinfectant on the steadily growing stream of buses and trucks crossing the border through the demilitarized zone. Two weeks ago, when the two Koreas conducted their first-ever zoo animal exchange, veterinarians in the South kept in quarantine the contribution of the Pyongyang Central Zoo: Asiatic black bears, African ponies and Siberian weasels. Punitive types of quarantine - economic boycotts or naval blockades of the kind Washington is now considering - are strongly opposed by South Korea's government. The quarantine of zoo animals imported from the North is seen simply as a health control measure that will help nurture a new experiment: road traffic between the two Koreas. Instead of aggressive forms of quarantine, then, South Korea quietly pushes cooperation. This quarantine gap underscores something vastly more significant: the wide policy gap between Seoul and Washington on the North Korea question. Seoul has recently spoken in stiff terms to the North, warning it against nuclear testing earlier this week. The South Koreans, certainly, are not naïve in dealing with the regime in Pyongyang. But, just as certainly, their assessment of the peninsula's fragile balance leads them to favor compromise over confrontation as the road to a long-term settlement of the Korean question. "I am skeptical about the idea that increased pressure against North Korea will make the North discard its program," President Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea told Die Welt, the German daily, on a visit to Germany earlier this month. "In reverse, it could make the situation worse. "We will mention sanctions when we believe there is no hope, but this is not the situation where there's no hope," he said in the interview. Roh also said that he opposed the collapse of North Korea's government. In Seoul, Shin Hyun Don, a Defense Ministry spokesman, told reporters that South Korea had asked Washington to stop formulating a joint military contingency plan for cross-border intervention in the event of instability in the North. Bush administration officials, frustrated with North Korea's 10-month-long boycott of talks over its nuclear weapons program, are debating seeking United Nations authorization to empower nations to search cargoes leaving or entering North Korea for nuclear-related materials. Taking a different tack, Seoul seeks to enhance security on the divided peninsula by reaching out to the North, promoting trade, investment and economic interdependence. [Friction]
• Korea and U.S. agree on stationing costs
  April 27, 2005 ? Seoul and Washington have agreed that the South's financial contribution to the stationing costs of the U.S. military on the peninsula will be 680.4 billion won ($680 million) this year, down 8.9 percent compared to 2004, according to a South Korean government official. Both Seoul and Washington have been at odds over the duration of the "Special Measures Agreement" and overall costs. Seoul wanted a one-year deal, but the United States wanted a multi-year accord as long as five years. Kim Sook, head of the North American Affairs Bureau at the Foreign Ministry, said that the duration of the new agreement would be two years. Under the Special Measures Agreement, South Korea is obligated to pay construction, logistics and combined defense improvement project costs.
• Ban the Bombs? Ban the Bums!
  How to Crush North Korea's Commies
  by Mike Thompson Posted Apr 26, 2005
  Coming of age at the end of the Eisenhower Era and entering politics at the start of the Goldwater Glory Days, I long have embraced the tenet that communism is bad, and rejoiced when Ronald Reagan, in Berlin, ordered Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," then lived to see the West's once implacable Cold War Soviet enemy melt into the Volga River and flow fungibly into the Caspian Sea, to evaporate.
  Peace was too good, however, to last. In recent days we have awakened to the crowing of a bantam rooster that has strutted into North Korea's bleak, cold barnyard to greet an atomic dawn with news that he now possesses an arsenal of nuclear bombs. Four inches shorter than the diminutive Napoleon Bonaparte, Dictator Kim Jong Il is only 5'2", even with the help of a Korean cobbler who crafts his lofty platform shoes and a wispy stylist who daily blow-dries and gels his hair into a stiff peak. Yet, sad to say, the Little Prince of Pyongyang, although thoroughly deluded, is now powerful enough, if not tall enough, to look American President George W. Bush straight into the eye and say: "Don't you step on my blue suede elevator shoes!" [Bizarre]
• Spokesman for DPRK Foreign Ministry Assails Rice's Reckless Remarks
  Pyongyang, April 25 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry answered a question put by KCNA Monday as regards the fact that the United States threatened the DPRK again over the nuclear issue. On April 21, U.S. State Secretary Rice in an interview with the U.S. FOX TV let loose the threatening remarks against the DPRK that the U.S. would go to the UN Security Council and it would not wait with folded arms for the north Koreans to return to the six-way talks. The spokesman said: As we have already declared time and again, it is our consistent ultimate goal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and there is no change in our principled stand to attain it through negotiation.
• Ex-President Urges US to Reward N. Korea
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung urged the United States on Monday to show ``more flexibility'' to offer North Korea ``concrete benefits'' in return for the dismantlement of all nuclear weapons programs. In an address to the Asia Foundation in San Francisco, Kim suggested that North Korea commit itself to a verifiable denuclearization and that the U.S., at the same time, give security assurances and ease the economic sanctions imposed on the impoverished North. ``The pther nations in the six-party talks can take a firm stance only when the North, despite the rewards offered, refuses to abandon its nuclear ambition,'' said the elderly statesman, who made the first visit to the U.S. since retiring in early 2003. An ardent advocate of his trademark ``sunshine policy'' of engaging the reclusive North, Kim's remarks came as a clear opposition to the voices of some American hardliners allegedly seeking measures to apply more pressure on North Korea, which is boycotting talks. [Friction] [Negotiations]
• Woori Bank Issues Credit Card for Robert Kim
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter A local bank has issued a credit card for a Korean-American civilian computer expert who served seven-year prison term for passing classified documents of the U.S. Navy to his native country South Korea. Robert C. Kim had worked for U.S. Naval intelligence before he was arrested on Sept. 24, 1996 on the spy charges. The 65-year-old man has declared bankruptcy due to financial difficulties as a result of lawsuits over the charges in 1997. As Kim has neither regular income nor a resident registration number similar to social security number in the U.S. here, he is not allowed to be a credit card holder in this country. Nor is he allowed to have a credit card in the U.S. because he went under bankruptcy protection. However, Woori Bank has decided to issue a card for Kim at the request of his supporters' association. [Friction]
• N. Korea, 6, and Bush, 0
  By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: April 26, 2005 Here's a foreign affairs quiz: (1) How many nuclear weapons did North Korea produce in Bill Clinton's eight years of office? (2) How many nuclear weapons has it produced so far in President Bush's four years in office? The answer to the first question, by all accounts, is zero. The answer to the second is fuzzier, but about six. The total will probably rise in coming months, for North Korea has shut down its Yongbyon reactor and says that it plans to extract the fuel rods from it. That will give it enough plutonium for two or three more weapons. The single greatest failure of the Bush administration's foreign policy concerns North Korea. Mr. Bush's policies toward North Korea have backfired and led the North to churn out nuclear weapons, and they have also antagonized our allies and diminished America's stature in Asia.
  North Korea is the most odious country in the world today. It has been caught counterfeiting U.S. dollars and smuggling drugs, and prisoners have been led along with wire threaded through their collarbones so they can't run away. While some two million North Koreans were starving to death in the late 1990's, Mr. Kim spent $2.6 million on Swiss watches. He's the kind of man who, when he didn't like a haircut once, executed the barber. [bizarre] [Partisan]
• U.S. Urged to Mind Its Own Business
  Pyongyang, April 24 (KCNA) -- A U.S. delegate, addressing a recent meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, again pulled up the DPRK and other anti-imperialist independent countries over the human rights issue. In this regard Minju Joson Sunday says in a signed commentary: The United States has lost its face to talk about human rights.
• The alliance: Is it in trouble?
  April 25, 2005 ? Is the U.S.-South Korea military alliance simply evolving into a force to meet modern challenges, or is the 50-year-old relationship coming apart as the administration of President Roh Moo-hyun asserts greater Korean independence and begins to step out from under America's security umbrella? The question is much on the minds of strategic analysts in the United States, in Korea and across Northeast Asia. As the issue is batted back and forth for political purposes, domestically and internationally, the official line from South Korea continues to be that ties between Seoul and Washington are rock-solid, even if minor disagreements occasionally arise. But a look back over the last two years appears to belie that view. [Friction]
• DJ in US to Talk About Security
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter Former president Kim Dae-jung will arrive in San Francisco, the United States on Monday on a weeklong visit with his wife Lee Hee-ho. The Asia Foundation, a San Francisco-based, non- profit organization that focuses on cultivating constructive relations between the U.S. and Asia, invited Kim to deliver a speech at the foundation's office as part of its 50th anniversary lecture series. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate will give an address under the title ``Korea and its Strategic Role in the Peace, Security and Prosperity of Northeast Asia'' on Monday, local time, at the foundation.
• US North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004
  Two USAID reports required by the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.R.4011:) are now available on the House International Relations Committee web-site. Section 201 of the Act requires the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Secretary of State to submit a report to Congress on U.S. Humanitarian Assistance to North Koreans. This 7 page report is available at http://www.fcnl.org/pdfs/NKHRA_Sec_201.pdf Section 202 of the Act requires the Administrator of USAID to submit a report describing USAID compliance with a provision expressing the sense of Congress that food aid be conditioned on improvements in monitoring and other areas. This short report is available at http://www.fcnl.org/pdfs/NKHRA_Sec_202.pdf These and other government reports are available at the FCNL web site, http://www.fcnl.org/issues/issue.php?issue_id=34#
• U.S., North Korean troops looking for war remains
  April 23, 2005 ? It was a sight to cause a double-take: American soldiers giving instructions to North Korean troops, some of whom were wearing Levi's jeans and Nike baseball caps provided by their erstwhile co-workers. A 27-person recovery team from the U.S. Department of Defense began work Saturday on recovering the remains of American soldiers slain during the Korean War, near Changjin Reservoir in South Hamgyeong province, where hundreds of Americans were killed in fierce combat with the Chinese in 1950.
• Roh said to seek early meeting with Bush on North
  April 23, 2005 ? A top government official said yesterday efforts have begun to seek a meeting between President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush as early as June to discuss the North Korea nuclear crisis.
• Rice emphasizes the UN option
  April 23, 2005 ? In a televised interview Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice emphasized that Washington might refer the North Korean nuclear issue to the United Nations Security Council if it sees the need. "We reserve the right and the possibility of going to the Security Council should it be necessary," Ms. Rice said in an interview with Fox News, a U.S. cable TV network.
• Balancer' idea not a new one
  Defense paper from 1998 envisioned role for Korea April 23, 2005 ? President Roh Moo-hyun's much- discussed recent statement that South Korea should be a "balancer" of power in Northeast Asia is not a new idea, according to a government official who says the Defense Ministry recommended that very goal in a 1998 document. The document, an assessment of South Korea's defense policy that is updated every five years, set 2015 as a target for Korea to have enough military power to act as a regional balancing force, the official said. For that to happen, the document asserted, the North Korean military threat would have to be reduced, and South Korea would need to have military might roughly equal to Japan's, and about a third of China's. The document estimated that 440 trillion won ($438 billion) would have to be spent between 1999 and 2015 to meet that goal. If those conditions were met, according to the document, South Korea would then be strong enough to decide the balance of power in Northeast Asia, depending on which superpower it chose to ally itself with
• Roh Seeks Summit With Bush in June
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea is trying to arrange an early summit between President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush to find a breakthrough in the regional standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, according to sources Friday.
• Seoul-Washington Alliance Remains Solid: USFK Chief
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The alliance between South Korea and the United States remains solid, Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, commander of the United States Forces Korea (USFK), said Friday. [Friction] [OPLAN]
• U.S. "OPLAN 5029-05" Assailed
  Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists' attempt to start a war of aggression against the DPRK is becoming extremely dangerous in all aspects. A proof of this is that they have recently worked out "OPLAN 5029-05," a more concrete version of their war scenario to invade the DPRK. In this regard Rodong Sinmun Thursday says in a signed commentary: The U.S. imperialist warmongers have gone the lengths of working out this new adventurous "plan" for a war of aggression against the DPRK. This indicates that the U.S. policy for stifling the DPRK is rapidly inching close to the dangerous phase of igniting a war of aggression against the DPRK.
• Defector Chides Seoul Over `Balancer Role'
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Hwang Jang-yop, the highest-ranked Pyongyang official to defect to South Korea, on Thursday criticized Seoul for its determination to play a ``balancer role,'' saying it will not be too late to play that role after reunifying the Korean Peninsula.
• Ministries at odds over taking North to the U.N.
  April 21, 2005 ? Mixed messages regarding the six-party talks came out of Seoul yesterday, with South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon refusing to rule out referring the North Korean nuclear issue to the U.N. Security Council, while Unification Ministry officials said they would oppose such a course of action. When asked what he thought of remarks from Washington earlier this week, saying that it may try to bring the North Korean nuclear issue before the U.N. Security Council if Pyongyang refuses to return to six-party talks, Mr. Ban said, "That is a strategic problem that will be discussed between South Korea and the United States in accordance with developments of the situation."
• Uncle Sam and Korean Uncle Toms
  Lee Wha Rang "I feel most troubled by those Koreans who think and speak in more pro-American ways than even Americans do." - President Roh Moo-hyun One of my favorite movies in the 1950\'s was The Teahouse of August Moon, starring Marlon Brando as a cunning Japanese who manages to fool the conquering Americans into doing what the defeated Japanese wanted through deception and charm. Japanese are good at extending one hand for shaking while stabbing the unsuspecting "friend" on the back. This art of deception was invented eons before the Japanese picked up. Sun Tzu enunciated the art of war some 2500 years ago and Genghis Khan was an expert of deception. Deception starts with Uncle Toms - traitors and fifth column enemy within.
• Careless on North Korea
  GLOBE EDITORIAL April 20, 2005 IN HIS refusal to revise a failed policy for North Korea, President Bush is not only increasing the risks of nuclear proliferation; he is also alienating US allies in Asia and exacerbating tensions among Asian powers. Political forces in South Korea and Japan that have been favorably inclined toward the United States want no part of the administration's reliance on a coercive strategy, as opposed to negotiations, to remove the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons.
  The North's neighbors were hardly reassured by the administration's insouciant reaction to signs suggesting that the North has shut down its nuclear reactor at Pyong--yang -- an action that could lead to spent fuel rods being taken from the reactor, placed for a time in a cooling pond, and then removed so plutonium for two or three more nuclear bombs can be extracted and stored out of sight of US satellites. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il conducts his diplomacy by means of belligerent invective and fanciful claims. But unlike Iran's leaders, who say they will never renounce what they insist is their right to enrich uranium, North Korea has for years been offering to peddle away its nuclear program in exchange for a nonaggression pact with the United States and economic benefits
• U.N. Envoy To N. Korea Steps Aside For Probe
  By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, April 21, 2005; Page A15 UNITED NATIONS, April 20 -- The United Nations' special envoy to North Korea, Maurice F. Strong, decided Wednesday to step aside until U.N.-appointed investigators and federal prosecutors finish examining his financial ties to a South Korean lobbyist accused of trying to bribe U.N. officials. The move comes less than a week after federal authorities charged Tongsun Park, a South Korean businessman, with lobbying U.N. officials as an "unregistered agent" of Saddam Hussein. A witness said Park in 1996 and 1997 invested $1 million in Iraqi funds in a Canadian company owned by the son of a high-ranking U.N. official, a federal investigator said.
  Strong, a Canadian entrepreneur and environmentalist, acknowledged Monday that Park had invested money in a business he was "associated with" in 1997 and later advised him on his dealings with Pyongyang. Strong said he would cooperate with U.N.-appointed investigators and federal prosecutors probing the $64 billion U.N. oil-for- food program in Iraq.
  Strong, whose two sons are Canadian businessmen, has not said whether he is the high-ranking U.N. official cited by federal prosecutors. He declined to comment through his assistant at the United Nations, Kristina Mayo. Attempts to reach Strong's sons through Mayo were unsuccessful.
• U.S. policy on North seen in flux
  April 20, 2005 ? WASHINGTON ? Speaking to an American newspaper, North Korea's top diplomat in New York said the country has shut down its nuclear reactor and plans to increase its nuclear deterrent. At the same time, the United States warned that it may soon change its policy and clamp down on the North economically and militarily. According to a report in USA Today, Han Song- ryol, North Korean deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said Monday that his government has shut down its reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex and plans to remove spent fuel rods to build bombs in efforts to increase the country's deterrent power against a possible U.S. attack.
  A U.S. State Department official spoke of tougher options. Speaking to the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity, the official said Washington believes that Pyongyang, if left alone ,will eventually conduct a nuclear test. He said the United States would likely impose economic sanctions against North Korea in a few months, adding that Washington will have to act, rather than "bluffing," during the summer to cope with the worsening situation. He said the United States will seek cooperation with Japan on economic sanctions, and that it expects opposition from China and South Korea.
• U.S. Navy would act in collapse scenario
  April 20, 2005 ? Vice Admiral Jonathan Greenbert, commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet, said yesterday that the United States would act to cope with instability in North Korea should the regime there fail, according to a report by the Stars and Stripes. "We would be the naval component for any subsequent operations," he said. "We would go in and help restore order in North Korea if there were instability or a regime failure." The U.S. 7th Fleet under the U.S. Pacific Command is the designated force to join the South Korean Navy should a war break out on the peninsula. The commander would control the joint naval forces of the two countries in time of war. As Admiral Greenbert indicated, the United States apparently plans to intervene if the North Korean regime collapses for internal reasons, a concept which has been opposed by Seoul recently. [Friction] [OPLAN]
• Poor Foreign Ministry!
  The Foreign Ministry's public relations officer on Monday called on journalists to make it clear that there is no pro-American faction in the ministry. The minister sent a letter of protest to a press outlet that reported a ministry official as calling "hypocrisy" the president's new foreign policy doctrine casting Korea in a balancing role in Northeast Asia. In a bid to identify the official who made the comment, the ministry questioned all senior officials above the rank of department head. Meanwhile, a presidential spokesperson explained that by pro- American Koreans the president meant Koreans who are fluent in English and studied in the United States. [Pro-Americanism] [Friction]
• U.S. "OPLAN 5029-05" Denounced
  Pyongyang, April 18 (KCNA) -- The "OPLAN 5029- 05" drawn up by the U.S. is a war scenario more dangerous and adventurous than the previous ones as it calls for starting a war of aggression against the north on its initiative. This is a clear indication that the U.S. has already reached the phase just before giving the green light to a war of aggression against the DPRK, going beyond the stage of threatening and blackmailing it.
• Unilateral US Action Against NK Dismissed
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The Defense Ministry said Tuesday that it is impossible for the United States to conduct a military contingency plan in case of instability in North Korea without South Korea's consent. Ministry spokesman Shin Hyun-don said the top U.S. Navy officer's recent remarks, which hinted at the possibility of unilateral actions in case of an emergency in the North, including the collapse of the communist regime, are ``meaningless'' as the relevant joint contingency plan, codenamed ``5029-05,'' has been suspended. According to the Stars and Stripes, a U.S. military newspaper published in Seoul, Vice Adm. Jonathan Greenert, commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet, said the U.S. naval component would ``go in and help restore order in North Korea if there were instability or a regime failure.''
  Under the draft plan, the U.S. military would take wartime command in the event of an emergency in North Korea resulting from internal turmoil, such as mass defection or revolt. South Korea has control of its military in peacetime. [Regime change] [Friction] [US military dominance]
• Transcript of Vice Adm. Jonathan Greenert's interview with Stars and Stripes
  Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Sunday, April 17, 2005
  second order in the effect of North Korea is the stability of the regime. Although we may not go to war over something like this or be in conflict, if the regime were to fail, we would have quite a mess on our hands. We would be the naval component for any subsequent operations, we would go in and help restore order in North Korea if there were an instability or a regime failure. We would probably have refugees and displaced people trying to get to Japan or otherwise going to sea to try to get out. So that's a second order problem with Korea
• Koreans expose US plan of action
  Peter Alford, Tokyo correspondent April 16, 2005
  SOUTH Korea's National Security Council has disclosed it recently vetoed a US plan to mobilise a joint military operation in the event of North Korea's internal collapse. In a move certain to further damage relations between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's administration and the US, the NSC yesterday revealed it had halted operational planning requested by Washington for a range of North Korean contingencies, from mass defections to regime change or a serious revolt. [OPLAN 5029-05] [Friction]
• Chong Wa Dae Hits Dailies on Pro-US Dispute
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter Cho Ki-sook, presidential secretary for public information, on Tuesday strongly criticized some domestic newspapers for having engaged in inappropriate reporting with regard to the controversial alliance between South Korea and the United States. She said the papers, which she said had exploited security issues for commercial purposes in the past, are now attempting to get profits by shaking the bilateral alliance these days. [Friction]
• US Accepts Seoul's Role of 'Balancer'
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter The United States fully accepted South Korea's strategic initiative to play a balancing role in Northeast Asia, although there are still some private sector experts who worry about the negative impact it might have on the two nations' alliance, a high-ranking diplomat said Monday. Kim Sook, director general of the North American Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said after returning from a trip to Washington that the governments of the allied powers came to a definite understanding about the controversial ``balancer'' strategy. [Friction]
• Roh confounded that Koreans are so pro-American
  April 18, 2005 ? ISTANBUL ? In a talk with Korean residents here during a three-day stay in Turkey, President Roh Moo-hyun has worried aloud that his countrymen approached issues involving the South Korea-U.S. alliance too much from an American point of view. Without giving examples, Mr. Roh complained Saturday that some Koreans are too what he called pro-American when they discuss relations between Seoul and Washington. "I am most concerned and feel troubled when I see that there are Koreans who possess a more pro-American way of thinking than Americans themselves," the president said.
• U.S. Plan to Supply New Type Shells to Its Forces in S. Korea under Fire
  Pyongyang, April 17 (KCNA) -- The U.S. decision to provide M1-A1 Abrams prototype tanks of the second division of its forces in south Korea with buckshot-type shells it developed anew is fraught with great danger, says Rodong Sinmun Sunday in a signed commentary. It says: The U.S. moves to ship the shells into Iraq and south Korea simultaneously undoubtedly prove that it seeks to bring the Iraqi situation under its control and launch a war of aggression against the DPRK at the same time. The U.S. is paying lip-service to the resumption of the six-party talks and the peaceful solution of the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S. However, this is nothing but a false tactics and the U.S. is, in fact, hastening preparations for a war of aggression against the DPRK.
• Roh Hits Out at Staunch Support for US
  By Shim Jae-yun Korea Times Correspondent INSTANBUL, Turkey - President Roh Moo-hyun said Sunday he has been suffering setbacks due to stalwart conservatives stubbornly backing the United States. Roh expressed concern over the Korean people who speak in support of the U.S. more proactively than U.S. citizens. ``They act in a way more like Americans than Americans,'' he said during a meeting with Koreans living here.
• Lobbyist Park Tong-sun at Large in Japan
  By Bae Keun-min Staff Reporter A South Korean being traced by U.S. prosecutors on charges of illegally lobbying the United Nations to help the Saddam Hussein government of Iraq is staying in Japan. Park Tong-sun, a former lobbyist allegedly involved in Iraq's ``oil-for-food program'' scandal, left for Tokyo on Thursday, according to South Korean immigration records. Park entered the nation from Malaysia Thursday morning and then left for Tokyo in the late afternoon. Park has been charged by the U.S. attorney in New York with being an unregistered agent for Iraq.
  Park once illegally lobbied for former South Korean President Park Chung-hee in the U.S. in the 1970s, in a case that came to be known as ``Koreagate'' or ``Park Tong-sun gate.'' He testified at a U.S. public hearing that he had offered $850,000 to 32 former and then- incumbent members of the U.S. House of Representatives to earn their support for the military regime of then President Park. He was granted a pardon from the U.S. in return for the testimony.

• Security lies in Korea-U.S. ties
  It is significant that for the first time in history, China and Russia will hold a joint military exercise in the Yellow Sea in September. The two countries agreed to a strategic partnership in 1996 and have strengthened military and economic cooperation since then. Now, cooperation between them has developed into a military exercise involving navy and air force troops with state-of-the-art weaponry. The military drill is a response to the strengthening of the U.S.-Japan alliance. In February, Washington and Tokyo proclaimed a "New Japan-U.S. Joint Declaration on Security" which is aimed at China by defining Taiwan as their "joint security concern." The interests of China and Russia ? engaged in a territorial dispute with Japan over four northern islands ? coincide with each other.
• South Korean links to U.S. called frayed
  March 24, 2005 ? On her return from an eight-day trip to the United States, Park Geun-hye, chairwoman of Grand National Party, told reporters yesterday that relations between South Korea and the United States are far worse than Koreans imagine they are. "I met various politicians," said Ms. Park. "If the mistrust that prevails among the politicians spreads to the general public of the United States, bilateral ties between the two countries will face greater problems." Ms. Park had a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to discuss the North Korean nuclear crisis, among other issues. She said a lack of cooperation between South Korea and the United States was the chief reason for the current stalemate in trying to end Pyongyang's nuclear weapons efforts. "If the gap in South Korea-U.S. cooperation widens, the North Korea nuclear problem will only become tougher," said Ms. Park. She added that differences in actions taken and words spoken by the South Korean government have led to the erosion of trust between South Korea and the United States. Ms. Park took the opportunity to criticize the government's "soft diplomacy" towards Pyongyang, saying it was the main reason the government has lost leverage over the North. North Korea now only wants to engage in direct talks with Washington, she said. [Friction]
• Nuclear-Powered US Submarine Enters Chinhae Port
  By Moon Gwang-lip Staff Reporter A local leading civic group confirmed on Wednesday that a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine was anchored at a military base in South Korea. Green Korea United confirmed that the U.S. nuclear-powered submarine SSN-688-LA was at the naval base in the southeastern naval port city of Chinhae. The civic group made public the photograph of the SSN-688 Los Angeles-class submarine that they took on March 16 at the base, claiming that the presence of the submarine within Korean waters breached the 1992 Joint Declaration on Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The picture taken on March 16 shows the nuclear- powered U.S. submarine SSN-688 anchored at a naval base in Chinhae, South Kyongsang Province. Green Korea United released the picture on Wednesday. The declaration stipulates that the two Koreas are only allowed to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. [NPT]
• Roh on Tightrope Between US, China
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter In what may be an apparent shift in policy, President Roh Moo-hyun has indicated that the nation would no longer be locked into its alliance with the United States and Japan. Roh is seeking to maintain closer relations with China instead of sticking to the trilateral alliance in a bid to more efficiently cope with the changing security environment surrounding the Korean Peninsula, government sources said. ``We will play a `balancing role' to help ensure peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia and on the Korean Peninsula,'' Roh said in his speech delivered at a commencement ceremony of the Korea Third Military Academy Tuesday. The president expressed a strong willingness that the nation would play a leading role in keeping peace in the region. ``The power structure in Northeast Asia will change depending on the stance we will take,'' he said. Roh's remarks were construed as an attempt to continue to pursue ``self-reliant diplomacy.'' ``This means that the nation would no longer be confined to the three-way alliance formed during the Cold War era,'' an official said. [Friction]
• Joint Military Exercises and Rice's Trip to S. Korea Opposed
  Pyongyang, March 21 (KCNA) -- South Korean civic and public organizations on March 18 reportedly waged a fight against the massive joint military maneuvers of the U.S. and south Korean bellicose elements and the south Korean trip of U.S. State Secretary Rice. The Reunification Solidarity, the People for Achieving Peace and Reunification, the Women's Society for Achieving Peace and the Peace and Disarmament Center of the Citizens' Solidarity for Democratic Society called a joint press conference.
• Allies Rattled by Intelligence Fiascos
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter One of the most reclusive and cloistered states in the world, North Korea often has to see any suspicions surrounding it turn into truth despite its desperate pleas toward the outside world. And, indeed, the hermit kingdom seems to have something to say this time.
  When the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was making rounds to three Northeast Asian countries as she did as the national security advisor about eight months ago, bad news flew into Seoul revealing what might be described as ``another intelligence fiasco'' of the U.S.
  In a news article, headlined ``US Misled Allies About Nuclear Export,'' the Washington Post reported that it was not North Korea but Pakistan _ a key U.S. ally in its war on terror _ that sold uranium hexafluoride to Libya. According to the report, which quoted a couple of American officials, the U.S. delivered the false allegation to its Asian allies _ South Korea and Japan _ and China, while giving briefings to them earlier this year, in an effort to increase pressure on North Korea.
  The Post wrote the U.S. officials said the briefings were ``hastily arranged'' after China and South Korea indicated they were considering bolting from six-party talks on North Korea.
  The alleged cover-up, a reminder of the earlier dispute over its intelligence fiasco in the run-up to the Iraqi invasion, has raised a strong suspicion here that the U.S. has joined hands with Japan to spread falsified information in order to topple the Kim Jong-il regime in North Korea.
  In the Japanese version of the alleged information cook-up, the Tokyo government condemned Pyongyang last December saying it concluded that the bone ashes sent from North Korea were not those of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by the North's agents decades ago.
  Much similar to the American case, which neo-conservatives apparently attempted to utilize for a harder line policy shift against the communist North, Tokyo also tried to use its own conclusion to suggest punitive measures such as economic sanctions.
  But the abduction dispute has recently entered a new phase after a Japanese scientist's recognition that his DNA tests on the ashes were not conclusive. According to Nature, a British science magazine, Tomio Yoshii, one of Japan's leading forensics experts, admitted his DNA tests were not conclusive and that it is possible the samples were contaminated.
  ``What the U.S. aimed with the distorted intelligence is crystal clear,'' said Kwon Young-il, a lawmaker and former presidential candidate of the Democratic Labor Party. ``It was to pressure South Korea and China to join its work of isolating North Korea and thereby bringing the country to its knees.''
  ``North Korea might have a nuclear arms program based on highly enriched uranium (HEU) as the U.S. alleges and might have sent false bone ashes _ either mistakenly or intentionally _ as Japan claims,'' says Cheong Wook-sik, who heads the Civil Network for a Peaceful Korea. ``But no scientific evidence has so far been provided to prove the allegations. This is another face of the international politics in Northeast Asia taking place between fallacy and truth.'' [Evidence]
• Hitting the beach
  March 22, 2005 ? South Korean marines participating yesterday in the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise, Foal Eagle, at Pohang, North Gyeongsang province. The weeklong annual military drill began Saturday. [Courtesy of the Marines] Amphibious landing exercise [Joint US military]
• Halt to S. Korean-U.S. Joint Military Exercises Demanded in S. Korea
  Pyongyang, March 20 (KCNA) -- The People's Solidarity and Reunification Solidarity of south Korea released a statement titled "Stop south Korea-U.S. joint war drills at once" on Mar. 15, according to a news report. The statement recalled that the U.S. and south Korean trigger-happy forces staged a joint river-crossing exercise near the Military Demarcation Line, while escalating the military tensions in the West Sea of Korea on the eve of their large-scale joint military drills, a combination of RSOI and Foal Eagle. The People's Solidarity and Reunification Solidarity charged that the above-said military exercises being staged at a time when the stand-off between north Korea and the U.S. is escalating and the situation is inching close to a war are obviously provocative and dangerous actions which may spark a real war any moment.
• Iraqi War Shows U.S. Hoodwinks World People
  Pyongyang, March 19 (KCNA) -- Two years have passed since the United States unilaterally invaded Iraq, a legitimate and sovereign state. The period has clearly proves that the Iraqi war started by the U.S., wholly hoodwinking the world people, is a state-sponsored terrorism, a gangster-like act of aggression and a violation of human rights. The Bush administration, which had gazed at Iraq, the world's second largest oil deposit and a strategic point of military importance, unleashed a war against the country under the pretext of its "possession of weapons of mass destruction" and "sponsorship of terrorism", ignoring international law and worldwide opposition. But death, misfortune and sufferings are all the U.S. imperialists have given to the Iraqi people after occupying the almost defenceless, non-resistant country allegedly to offer "freedom" and "democracy" to it.
• Rice tells EU: don't lift China arms ban
  Jonathan Watts in Beijing and Nicholas Watt in Brussels Monday March 21, 2005 The Guardian The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, stepped up the transatlantic row about selling arms to China yesterday with a sharply worded warning that the EU should not upset the balance of power in a region in which it has no defence responsibilities. Ms Rice said Japan and South Korea - Washington's two main allies in east Asia - were also opposed to the EU's plans to lift its weapons ban, a move they fear could allow China to buy sophisticated European technology for use against their troops.
  "Our view is that it is not appropriate," she told a press conference in Seoul yesterday, before arriving in Beijing last night. "The European Union should do nothing to contribute to a circumstance in which Chinese military modernisation draws on European Union technology. It is the United States, not Europe, that has defended the Pacific
• Rice says time is running out on North talks
  March 21, 2005 ? Declaring that the stalemate over North Korea's nuclear arms program cannot go on forever, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice forcefully restated Washington's position yesterday that U.S. diplomats would hold no direct talks with representatives of Pyeongyang outside the six-party framework. North Korea has long sought bilateral exchanges with the United States. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, Ms. Rice suggested time is running out to resolve the North Korea nuclear crisis through the talks. "We need to resolve the issue. It cannot go on forever," she said. She went on: "This is not an issue between the United States and North Korea. This is an issue of the neighborhood and what kind of Korean Peninsula we are going to have," Ms. Rice said.
• Rice outlines U.S. strategy for North nuclear problem
  March 21, 2005 ? While traveling last week to Tokyo on a weeklong Asia trip, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke at length to reporters on the U.S. strategy in dealing with North Korea's nuclear weapons program. What follows is an edited transcript of her comments pertaining to the Korean Peninsula.
• Rice Says NK Sovereign State
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that the United States had no intention of invading North Korea while urging it to return to the six-party talks to make the strategic choice of giving up its nuclear weapons ambitions.
• Rice in Asia
  Washington Should Play More Balanced, Positive Role U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's 20-hour stay in Korea took Sunday away from President Roh Moo-hyun and other officials. Still, the outcome didn't go much beyond expectations: Reconfirming the importance of the six-party talks to discuss North Korea's nuclear ambitions and Pyongyang's immediate return to the multilateral forum. Or, it should be considered fortunate that both North Korea and the framework for regional dialogue have been given some more time and chances, which increasingly appear to be running out. Rice flew into Seoul with some good faith. She acknowledged that North Korea is a sovereign state; the U.S. has neither desire nor reason to attack the North; and Washington can provide multilateral security assurance for Pyongyang. None of these are entirely new but were still significant as they came from the new U.S. diplomatic chief. After all, Rice had just spurned the North Korean demand to withdraw her labeling of the communist country as an "outpost of tyranny," saying there was no reason to apologize for ``telling the truth.'' So, it was not surprising that Rice fell short of offering anything new to lure Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. A worrisome trend in this regard is the alleged move in Washington and Tokyo to drop the six-nation talks and bring the case to the U.N. Security Council. And if this was part of the diplomatic keynotes of the second Bush administration on the North Korean nuclear issue, it is more than disappointing because it would be fairer to say that the U.S. _ not North Korea _ holds the final key to solving this problem.
• USFJ commander addresses force realignment, North Korea concerns
  By T.D. Flack, Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Monday, March 21, 2005 YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan - Lt. Gen. Bruce A. Wright, commander of U.S. Forces Japan and 5th Air Force, discussed regional concerns, from the realignment of U.S. military forces to the North Korean threat, during a roundtable discussion at his headquarters building Friday afternoon.
• The National Defense Strategy of The United States of America
  March 2005
• PLANNING SCENARIOS Executive Summaries
  Created for Use in National, Federal, State, and Local Homeland Security Preparedness Activities
  The Homeland Security Council David Howe, Senior Director for Response and Planning July 2004
• How the U.S. Secretary of State Views Korea
  .U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a visit to Korea, said it was best for North Korea to get the respect and assistance it wants from the international community through six-party nuclear disarmament talks. She also said she exchanged views with the Korean side concerning USFK redeployments and the modernization of the Korean military and that her country supports Japan's permanent membership of the U.N. Security Council. Nothing here is new.
• Rice arriving with nuclear issue on edge
  March 19, 2005 ? With prospects that long- running diplomatic efforts to end North Korea's nuclear arms program may soon reach a dead-end, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice makes one of the key stops in her weeklong tour of Asia when she arrives in Korea today. After labeling North Korea an "outpost of tyranny," Ms. Rice has pointedly rebuffed demands from Pyeongyang that she apologize for her description of the communist country. She took a hard line on the nuclear issue at the outset of her Asian tour, saying, "What the North Koreans would like is to get into a bilateral discussion with the United States so that one by one they can cut separate deals on this issue, and we're not going to allow them to do it."
  The visit is taking place amid verbal attacks between South Korean and U.S. politicians. Unification Minister Chung earlier this week rebuked U.S. Congressman Henry Hyde, who criticized South Korea's soft stance against North Korea, saying that the communist country is the South's "brother." "Apart from talking about solutions to the nuclear issue," a government official who asked for anonymity said, "I just wish that Ms. Rice would not talk even tougher this time."
• Freedom House to Hold Seoul Meeting
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Despite understanding the South Korean government's disapproval, an American NGO confirmed Friday that it will push ahead with a plan to hold an international conference on North Korea's human rights situation in Seoul early next year. Freedom House, a Washington-based pro-human rights group, hinted that the conference, which will be held sometime in the first three months of 2006, would have a political overtone
• Visiting Korea Base, Rice Sends Forceful Reminder to the North
  By JOEL BRINKLEY Published: March 20, 2005 OMMAND POST TANGO, South Korea, Sunday, March 20 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stepped off her airplane in Seoul on Saturday evening, boarded an Army Black Hawk helicopter and immediately flew to this underground command bunker from which military commanders would direct any war against North Korea.
  "I wanted to come here to thank you for what you do on the front lines of freedom," she told more than 100 service members in the war room, carved deep inside a mountain south of Seoul. "I know you face a close-in threat every day." The visit, a pointed reminder of American military capacity on the peninsula, came just hours after a speech in Tokyo in which Ms. Rice repeated that the United States had no intention of attacking North Korea. But Ms. Rice's aides are also making it plain that the administration has run out of patience with North Korea's continued refusal to rejoin nuclear disarmament talks. A senior official traveling with Ms. Rice said she was trying to send a clear message that it was time to bring talks over the North's nuclear weapons program "to a satisfactory conclusion." Ms. Rice's action was a departure from diplomatic protocol on several levels. It is highly unusual for a secretary of state's first destination in a country to be a military site instead of a diplomatic event, especially an American installation instead of a South Korean one.
• Remarks at Sophia University
  Secretary Condoleezza Rice Tokyo, Japan March 19, 2005
  SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much. I would like to thank you, Father Currie, for having me here, and especially to Miss Watanabe. I was talking with Miss Watanabe and I understand that she spent a year studying at Berkley, which, of course, is across the bay from Stanford. (Laughter.) We have quite a rivalry with Berkley. (Laughter.) So, I hope the next time you go to the States, Miss Watanabe, you'll study at Stanford. (Laughter.)
  I am honored to be here at Sophia University, this great beacon of learning, this living example of the strong partnership between America and Japan. I want to thank the university's leaders and trustees and faculty and students for the hospitality that you are showing me here, and for the privilege of joining you today. I have actually visited Japan many times. But my favorite visit was in 1986 when I taught for three weeks at the National Defense Academy in Yokosuka
• Rice Says S. Korea Must Defend Against 'Close-In Threat'
  Associated Press Sunday, March 20, 2005; 1:02 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that international disarmament talks remain North Korea's only option as the United States, South Korea and other allies try to end Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. Rice played down a suggestion from South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon that the six-party talks give North Korea the venue it most wants -- a means to negotiate with the United States directly.
  Ban had emphasized the U.S-North Korea dialogue in remarks to reporters after meeting with Rice earlier Sunday. [Friction]
• Rice Puts Japan At Center of New U.S. Vision of Asia
  China Challenged in Major Speech By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, March 19, 2005; Page A16
  TOKYO, March 19 -- Condoleezza Rice, on her first foray into Asia as secretary of state, outlined on Saturday a new U.S. vision of Japan's increasing importance as a global power and challenged China to open its political system and work harder to "embrace some form of genuinely representative government." In a speech to about 500 professors and students at Sophia University here, Rice offered an expansive view of Japan's role in the world -- including unambiguous support for its campaign to win a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council -- that suggested the administration viewed the longtime U.S. ally as a counterbalance to the rising regional influence of China.
• Hyde Slammed for 'Diplomatic Insolence'
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter Rep. Yoo Jay-kun of the ruling Uri Party on Friday criticized U.S. Congressman Henry Hyde for his recent remarks over South Korea's deletion of the term ``main enemy,'' referring to North Korea, in its annual defense white paper. Yoo, chairman of the National Assembly's Defense Committee, called the remarks ``diplomatic insolence'' and ``interference in domestic affairs.'' The lawmaker, who also heads a South Korean-U.S. legislators' association, echoed Unification Minister Chung Dong-young who described Hyde's remarks as ``inappropriate'' last Monday.
• GNP Leader Requests US Envoy to NK
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Rep. Park Geun-hye, chairwoman of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), suggested Thursday that Washington send a special envoy to Pyongyang to seek a solution to the prolonged standoff over the North Korean nuclear weapons program. In a speech over lunch at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think-tank, the GNP leader asked the United States to take a ``forward-looking'' stance in engaging the North by dispatching a special envoy to the communist country to dispel the distrust between Washington and Pyongyang. ``It would be important for the U.S. and North Korea to engage in bilateral dialogue within the framework of the six-party talks,'' Park said. [Friction] [Negotiations]
• GNP Leader Calls NK Main Enemy
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Rep. Park Geun-hye, chairwoman of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), Wednesday called North Korea the country's main enemy. In a breakfast meeting at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C., Park was quoted as saying, ``The North is the country's main enemy militarily, though it can be viewed as both the subject of unification and a threat to national security.'' Her statement came after controversial remarks by a U.S. Congressman who urged Seoul to clarify who its enemies are. At a parliamentary hearing on the North Korean nuclear issue on March 10, Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said South Korea must indicate who its enemy is and reconsider its economic aid to North Korea if it wants U.S. help.
• Spokesman for DPRK FM Blasts U.S. State Secretary's Reckless Remarks
  Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to the question put by KCNA on Mar. 16 as regards a string of vituperation let loose by U.S. State Secretary Condoleezza Rice against the DPRK. Rice, when interviewed by Reuters and the Washington Times recently, told rubbish that she would not apologize for the remark terming the DPRK "an outpost of tyranny." By repeatedly demanding that the U.S. state it has no hostile intent toward north Korea Pyongyang is throwing up smoke screens in its continued refusal to return to the six-country talks on its nuclear program and the U.S. would not be going to play the north Koreans' game, she said. It is quite illogical for the U.S. to intend to negotiate with the DPRK without retracting its remarks listing its dialogue partner as "an outpost of tyranny." This is, in the final analysis, little short of indicating its will not to hold the six-party talks.
• North sees military drill in South as step to war
  March 16, 2005 ? Using heightened rhetoric, North Korea reacted yesterday to routine annual joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises, saying it would have to increase its nuclear arsenal to deal with U.S. preparations for a war on the peninsula.
• Korea, U.S. seal agreement on defense costs
  March 16, 2005 ? Seoul and Washington have agreed in principle to reduce the amount South Korea pays to maintain U.S. military forces in the country, a government official said yesterday. Talks regarding cost sharing started in November. Both sides completed a fifth meeting at the Foreign Ministry yesterday. "The South Korean government presented an argument that it shouldered a heavy burden last year through the Yongsan relocation deal and the dispatch of South Korean troops to Iraq and thus needs to contribute less to the stationing costs of U.S. forces," according to an official. "It has been accepted by the United States." South Korean officials through Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon have also repeatedly said that the reduction in U.S. troops must be taken into account. Without disclosing details, the official said that the total amount South Korea would have to bear would be less than what the country shouldered in the past years. Last year, Seoul paid 746.9 billion won ($743 million). According to the official, both sides agreed that the "Special Measures Agreement" outlining Seoul's financial responsibility will be effective for two years. The agreement will be finalized in two weeks. Under the Special Measures Agreement, South Korea bears the cost of Korean nonmilitary personnel employed by the U.S. military, military construction, logistics and combined defense improvement projects.
• DPRK FM Spokesman Denounces U.S.-S. Korea Joint War Exercises
  Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA Tuesday denouncing the U.S. and the south Korean warlike forces for planning to stage�@large- scale war exercises, the combination of Foal Eagle and RSOI, across south Korea. As already known, the U.S.-led large scale war exercises are slated to be staged in south Korea from Mar. 19 to 25. U.S. elite forces in south Korea, its mainland and abroad and Kitty Hawk and other huge nuclear strike forces are expected to participate in these maneuvers to be staged under the simulated conditions of an "emergency" on the Korean Peninsula.
• GNP Leader Calls for Realistic Proposals for NK
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The United States should offer realistic proposals to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions, Rep. Park Geun-hye, chairwoman of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), said Tuesday. In a meeting with former U.S. Undersecretary of State Arnold Kantor in Washington D.C., Park proposed that Washington offer ``bold incentives'' to Pyongyang to persuade it to abandon its nuclear weapons program, GNP spokeswoman Chun Yu-ok said. ``Economic aid and establishing diplomatic relations between the U.S. and North Korea are options that can be considered,'' the opposition leader was quoted as saying. Park is now on a trip to the U.S [Friction] [PYR]
• Subtle Signs Betray Uncle Sam's Displeasure
  WASHINGTON -- With Unification Minister Chung Dong-young calling U.S. House Foreign Relations chairman Rep. Henry Hyde's demand for Korea to clearly define its enemy "inappropriate," subtle waves have been detected in the United States. U.S. White House spokesman Scott McClellan, asked on Monday by a reporter about South Korea's omission of the term "main enemy" to describe North Korea in last year's defense white paper, he appeared not to understand. "I'm sorry, was South Korea what?" he asked. He then dodged the reporter's second question about the White House position on the term's omission, instead speaking at length about the need for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. To the reporter's third attempt, McClellan replied, "You might want to direct that question to South Korea." It appears that the White House is determined to avoid comment on an issue that has caused small fissures to open up between the allies. With U.S. officials tight-lipped, Washington's understanding of the state of relations between Korea and the U.S. is hard to ascertain. If McClellan avoided comment, it was at least partly because of the sensitive nature of the matter itself, although some believe it reflects discomfort within the U.S. government. Many Korea experts outside U.S. government are becoming more critical. In a March 11 piece entitled "U.S-Korea relations at a crossroads," Washington columnist Richard Halloran raised the alarm. "South Korea is fast approaching a critical decision as to whether to try to revive its troubled alliance with the United States or dissolve their joint security treaty, expel American forces from the peninsula and seek an alliance with China," he wrote. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) senior fellow Derek J. Mitchell said that while the alliance has ostensibly strengthened due to the deployment of Korean troops to Iraq, there were doubts about its long-term and strategic perspective. He said differences in perception over the North Korean threat had shaken the very raison d'etre of the alliance, and Seoul's continued support of and assistance to Pyongyang "confused" Washington. (Heo Yong-beom, heo@chosun.com ) [Friction]
• In Asia, Rice Says North Korea More Isolated From Neighbors
  By Glenn KesslerWashington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, March 16, 2005; Page A17 NEW DELHI, March 15 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asserted Tuesday that North Korea's "isolation from its neighbors has deepened" as it has bolstered its nuclear stockpile in the past year, even as South Korea and China continue to
• aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk
  The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk arrived in Busan yesterday to take part in a joint South Korea-U.S. military exercise. The routine drill, scheduled to begin next week, will involve 17,000 U.S. troops; 11,000 of those are from overseas bases. One of 12 carriers in the U.S. navy, the Kitty Hawk carries about 5,200 sailors and 60 aircraft.
• Rice talks tough as Asian tour gets under way
  March 15, 2005 ? Before leaving on her first tour of Asia as U.S. secretary of state Monday, Condoleezza Rice made clear that she is unwilling to issue any apologies to North Korea for her remark calling the communist state an "outpost of tyranny." Still, North Korea and the knotty diplomatic effort to bring an end to the country's nuclear weapons programs will be high on Ms. Rice's agenda. In an interview with the Washington Times before her trip, Ms. Rice said, "I don't think there is any doubt that I spoke the truth, and I don't know that one apologizes for speaking the truth." In her Senate confirmation hearing in January, Ms. Rice named several countries, including North Korea, as outposts of tyranny.
• MS Accused of Discriminating Against Korean Customers
  By Kim Tae-gyu Staff Reporter Microsoft, the U.S.-headquartered software giant, is accused of discriminating against Korean customers in operating its Hotmail e-mail service. Microsoft Korea yesterday conceded that Korean subscribers are not eligible to extend their storage capacity in Hotmail. Microsoft Hotmail announced last June that it would expand its storage allowance from a conventional 2 megabytes (MB) to 250 MB for its accounts. The policy has been applied to nine countries _ the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Canada and Australia _ but Korea was excluded from the list.
• US Inmates' Get Preferential Treatment in Local Prison
  By Kim Rahn Staff Reporter Six U.S. soldiers detained in a Korean prison are receiving preferential treatment in individual cells furnished with televisions, desks and beds, according to a U.S. military newspaper. They cook for themselves with food supplied by the U.S. Forces Korea. The conditions for the U.S. soldiers, serving in a Korean prison for serious crimes, were first disclosed by the Stars and Stripes on Monday. The newspaper reported that six U.S. service members are currently detained at the Cheonan Juvenile Correctional Institute in Chonan, South Chungchong Province. Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), the Korean government can take custody of U.S. military personnel accused of any of 12 major crimes, including murder, vehicular manslaughter from drunk driving, rape and drug abuse. [Extraterritoriality]
• NK Denounces ROK-US Military Drill
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - North Korea denounced on Tuesday a planned joint South Korea-U.S. military exercise as war preparations and vowed to strengthen its nuclear arsenal.
• Star Rises for Daughter of South Korea
  As Opposition Leader, Park Finds Pluses, Minuses in Father's Legacy By Anthony Faiola Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A16 SEOUL, March 14 -- From the beginning, Park Geun Hye's political path was paved by tragedy. She lost her mother, then South Korea's first lady, to a North Korean assassin in 1974. Five years later, Park bowed before the coffin of her father, Park Chung Hee, the nation's longtime military ruler, who had been gunned down by his intelligence chief.
• Unification Minister Gives U.S. Hardliner Short Shrift
  Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on Monday dismissed as "inappropriate" a taunt from a U.S. lawmaker that Korea should make up its mind who the enemy is before it can rely on U.S. help. Ministry spokesperson Kim Hong-jae quoted Chung as saying Northeast Asia was trying to move from hostile confrontation to coexistence, reconciliation and cooperation. Chung said U.S. House International Relations Committee chairman Henry Hyde's confrontational thinking was not helpful in resolving problems on the Korean Peninsula. Chung made the statement during a meeting of Unification Ministry officials, but the official added it should be seen as having been made in Chung's capacity as chairman of the National Security Council. As such, it is likely to cause tremors in the Korea-U.S. relationship. [Friction]
• Environmental pollution by the U.S. troops in south Korea
  white paper issued by the National Reunification Institute on February 22.
• Vigilance Must Be Heightened against U.S. Abuse of International Law: KCNA
  Pyongyang, March 12 (KCNA) -- The United States is getting more outspoken in its interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states and its schemes of military intervention against them under the cloak of "anti-terrorism", "non- proliferation of mass-destruction weapons", "freedom and democracy" and "protection of human rights". The U.S. abuses the lever of the international law for its political and military intervention. For example, it misuses the existing international humanitarian law and human rights convention to justify its intrigues to launch military intervention and topple the systems of anti-U.S. independent states. The international humanitarian law defines massacre, crime against humanity, use of biochemical and lethal weapons in a war time as war crimes and calls to account under the criminal law with them.
  In utter disregard of the international law, the U.S. forces dropped bombs at random on civilian residential quarters and vehicles and made no bones about using about 1,700 tons of depleted uranium bombs in Iraq. Owing to over decade-long economic sanctions, Iraq suffered an economic loss to the tune of at least 200 billion US dollars and over 1,732,000 Iraqis died of the lack of medicines and insufficient nutrition.
• DeLay Ethics Allegations Now Cause of GOP Concern
  By Mike AllenWashington Post Staff Writer Monday, March 14, 2005; Page A01 House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) has dismissed questions about his ethics as partisan attacks, but revelations last week about his overseas travel and ties to lobbyists under investigation have emboldened Democrats and provoked worry among Republicans. With some members increasingly concerned that DeLay had left himself vulnerable to attack, several Republican aides and lobbyists said for the first time that they are worried about whether he will survive and what the consequences could be for the party's image.
  On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that DeLay and other members, including some Democrats, had accepted trips from the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, which had registered as a foreign agent. That would make the trips a violation of House rules, although both DeLay and the group said he was not told about the registration until last week.
• Congressman asks Seoul to cite its enemy
  March 12, 2005 ? WASHINGTON ? Henry Hyde, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations, has challenged South Korea to state who its adversaries are if it expects military support from the United States. Citing Seoul's deletion of a reference to North Korea as its main enemy in a recent Defense Ministry White paper, Mr. Hyde pointed out Thursday that the document states that 690,000 U.S. troops are expected to come to the defense of South Korea in the case of an armed conflict with North Korea. Such a large troop deployment would require congressional approval, Mr. Hyde said. Thus, South Korea needed to declare who might be its enemy. In an opening statement at a full committee hearing on the North Korea nuclear crisis, Mr. Hyde said that because of mixed signals coming from South Korea, the nuclear issue has become more complex. He said Beijing and Seoul needed to reconsider "showering" aid on North Korea. "The question remains as to whether the United States can develop a unified diplomatic response via the framework of the six-party talks to resolve this crisis peacefully," Mr. Hyde said. "Without a unified front, these recent developments could threaten the delicate security balance in Asia." Accepting Pyeongyang's claim that the United States directs hostile policy towards it as "judicious," Mr. Hyde accused the North of taking a hostile stance towards the United States. He said Seoul and Washington needed to respond to the situation with a unified front and warned that failing to do so would play into the hands of the North. [Military balance] [Main enemy] by Kim Ching-hyuk
• Korea, U.S. define policy for North Asia
  The word, "doctrine," is a term with an imperialistic flavor. It originates from the Latin word, "doctrina," meaning to teach. Sharing a root with "doctor," "doctrine" should be academic. In medieval Europe, doctrine used to mean a system of religious beliefs.
  A more undisguised move of intervention was the Truman Doctrine. In 1947 when the Cold War started, President Harry Truman advocated an ideology to protect the world from the communism. "I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by other pressures." President Truman's decision to immediately commit U.S. troops as soon as the Korean War broke out was based on the philosophy. The clause in the Truman Doctrine is very similar to President George W. Bush's "expansion of freedom" speech. President Bush's recent moves suggest that the "main enemy" is no longer the Soviet Union but China. The tension in Northeast Asia is elevating. President Roh Moo-hyun declared on March 8 that Korea would not get involved in conflicts in the Northeast Asia, and some have begun to call it the "Roh Moo-hyun Doctrine." It could be a doctrine for it is a publicly proclaimed foreign policy. However, a doctrine is not a slogan but a declaration of power, and hence, the United States has dominated such statements so far.[Friction]
• U.S. Human Rights Abuses Assailed
  Pyongyang, March 11 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun Friday carries a signed commentary denouncing the United States for persistently pulling up other countries over "human rights abuses". It is preposterous and ridiculous of the U.S. to talk about the "human rights issue" of other countries, styling itself a "judge of human rights", the commentary says, and goes on: The U.S. is the graveyard of human rights and the worst violator of human rights. It is, therefore, by no means fortuitous that Amnesty International claimed the U.S. has topped the list of the world's worst abusers of human rights in five aspects of their performance for the last 40 odd years. What is more serious is that it has violated human rights worldwide. The most hideous human rights abuses perpetrated by the U.S. in the new century are clearly evidenced by the fact that in recent years it waged Afghan and Iraqi wars, massacring peaceable civilians in cold blood.
• Planned U.S.-S. Korean Military Drills Slashed
  Pyongyang, March 11 (KCNA) -- The United States and the south Korean authorities should not act rashly but promptly cancel the planned reckless military exercises against the DPRK, pondering over the grave consequences to be entailed by such war maneuvers, demanded a spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland in a statement Friday. He strongly urged the south Korean authorities to behave themselves, mindful that if they blindly join the U.S. in its dangerous saber rattling, it will only bedevil the north-south relations.
• Ex-US Diplomat Urges Separation of Human Rights from Nuke Issue
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) - Human rights in North Korea should be dealt with separately from the communist state's nuclear program and the six- party talks should focus on the latter, a former U.S. diplomat said Thursday. James Lilly, former ambassador to South Korea, also said he believes the U.S. should engage North Korea in bilateral talks to address the human rights issue. Lilly made the remarks at a brief meeting with Yonhap News Agency following his testimony before the House Foreign Relations Committee. The ex-ambassador is considered a strong candidate for special envoy on North Korea's human rights, a post that would be created under the North Korea Human Rights Act 2004.
• U.S. Pacific Commander Says ROK-US Ties Remain Strong
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The Seoul-Washington alliance remains ``strong'' and continues to contribute to peace on the Korean Peninsula and to the security of the region, William Fallon, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, said in a statement recently submitted to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. He will visit Seoul on Friday, a day before a South Korea-U.S. joint military drill. The Seoul-Washington Security Policy Initiative (SPI), formerly the Future of the Alliance talks (FOTA), is addressing the mutual security needs while meeting Washington's requirements for U.S. Forces Korea's (USFK) transformation and increased flexibility, Fallon said.
• On Asia Trip, Rice to Nudge Allies on N. Korea
  Secretary Seeks to Knit Common Message By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, March 13, 2005; Page A23 With the crisis over North Korea's nuclear programs looming in the background, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week will dash across Asia, seeking to nudge East Asian allies into a coordinated strategy for confronting the reclusive communist nation. Some U.S. and Asian officials are increasingly convinced North Korea has no intention of giving up its nuclear weapons programs, opening up the possibility that the Bush administration and perhaps Japan would begin to favor pressing for tougher action against the reclusive communist nation.
• Cancellation of Plan for North-Targeted War Exercises Demanded
  Pyongyang, March 10 (KCNA) -- The south Korea- U.S. "Combined Forces Command" announced that it would stage RSOI and Foal Eagle joint military exercises from March 19 to 25. Rodong Sinmun Thursday observes in a signed commentary in this regard: The U.S.-projected large-scale saber rattling is obviously a grave military threat and provocation against the DPRK and a dangerous test war aimed at stifling it by force of arms. [Joint US military]
• The enemy within
  How an Americanist devoted to destroying international alliances became the US envoy to the UN Sidney Blumenthal Thursday March 10, 2005 The Guardian
  In the heat of the battle over the Florida vote after the 2000 US presidential election, a burly, mustachioed man burst into the room where the ballots for Miami-Dade County were being tabulated, like John Wayne barging into a saloon for a shoot-out. "I'm with the Bush-Cheney team, and I'm here to stop the count," drawled John Bolton. And those ballots from Miami-Dade were not counted. Now that same John Bolton has been named by President Bush as the US ambassador to the UN. "If I were redoing the security council today, I'd have one permanent member because that's the real reflection of the distribution of power in the world," Bolton once said. Lately, as undersecretary of state for arms control, he has wrecked all the nonproliferation diplomacy within his reach. Over the past two decades he has been the person most dedicated to trying to discredit the UN
  But Bolton's coarse ideology is advanced by sophisticated campaigns of disinformation - and not only on Iraq and North Korea. His leaks of falsehoods that Syria and Cuba had developed weapons of mass destruction sparked internal revolts by intelligence professionals and the foreign service.
• S. Korean Group Sponsored DeLay Trip
  Visits May Have Broken House Rules By Mike Allen and R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, March 10, 2005; Page A01 A delegation of Republican House members including Majority Leader Tom DeLay accepted an expense-paid trip to South Korea in 2001 from a registered foreign agent despite House rules that bar the acceptance of travel expenses from foreign agents, according to government documents and travel reports filed by the House members. Justice Department documents show that the Korea- U.S. Exchange Council, a business-financed entity created with help from a lobbying firm headed by DeLay's former chief of staff, registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act on Aug. 22, 2001. DeLay; his wife, Christine; and two other Republican lawmakers departed on a trip financed by the group on Aug. 25 of that year. [Corruption]
• Roh limits role of USFK in Asia
  March 09, 2005 ? Declaring Korea should be able to handle its own defense 10 years from now, President Roh Moo-hyun used a graduation speech yesterday at the Air Force Academy to announce his government would not consent to U.S. troops on the peninsula becoming involved in a conflict elsewhere in Asia. "The United States Forces in Korea will continue to play important roles," Mr. Roh said for the graduation ceremony at the academy. "But I clearly say that the USFK should not be involved in disputes in Northeast Asia without Korea's agreement." [Friction]
• President Opposes Role for USFK in Regional Conflict
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter President Roh Moo-hyun, Tuesday clarified that South Korea will not allow U.S. troops to become involved in any dispute in Northeast Asia without the consent of the government. ``Although there has been concern about the expanded role of the U.S. Forces in Korea, I believe it is a matter of strategic flexibility,'' he said during a speech at an Air Force Academy commencement ceremony. ``I can clearly say that our people will not get entangled in regional disputes against our will in the future. We will go ahead with this as a firm principle,'' he said. [Friction]
• SNU Researchers to Conduct US-Funded Military Project
  By Chung Ah-young Staff Reporter A study team at Seoul National University (SNU) will conduct a two-year research project on military technology funded by a U.S. Navy institute. The research team, led by Kim Yong-hwan, professor of naval architecture and ocean engineering at SNU's college of engineering won the bid for the project on fluid pressure applications from the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) affiliated with the U.S. Navy, which is funding the research. It is the first time a local team has been selected for a U.S. military research project.
• Speaker Opposes Sanctions on North Korea
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter National Assembly Speaker Kim Won-ki called for the peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue Tuesday, stressing the need to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. During a luncheon meeting organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, Kim said that it is time to lure Pyongyang back to the six-way talks to end its nuclear ambitions peacefully, not to impose sanctions on the North.
• Wartime Leaflet in Internet Auction
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter A leaflet issued by United Nations forces during the 1950-53 Korean War has shown up on an Internet auction site specializing in products related to North Korea. Experts assumed the bill was part of the propaganda materials scattered between 1951 and July 1953, when the ceasefire was agreed between the U.N. forces and North Korea. On the front, the red-colored item looks similar to a 100-won bill, which was first printed in 1947 by North Korea. Its design was used to draw the attention of North Korean and Chinese soldiers. The certificate is written in three languages _ Korean, English and Chinese _ on the back of the bill under the name of Mark W. Clark, the commander of U.N. forces at the time. ``Whenever you wish to give up fighting, all you need to do is show this certificate to U.N. forces soldiers,'' the bill says in Korean. ``This certificate guarantees good treatment to any Chinese or North Korean soldier desiring to cease fighting. Take this man to your nearest officer and treat him as an honorable prisoner of war,'' the English contents of the bill reads. Experts say a total of some 2.5 billion bills were scattered by U.N. forces during the war, including 1 million bills dropped by two B-29 bombers near the Yalu River between the North Korean and Chinese border on April 26, 1953. [Korean War events]
• North Korea Denounces US Pro-Democracy Act
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter North Korea on Monday criticized the United States' ADVANCE Democracy Act of 2005 for its ``illegal'' and ``immoral'' attempt to interfere in the North's domestic affairs. ``Under the veil of freedom and democracy, the U.S. is conspiring to carry out an immoral plan to intervene in other countries' domestic affairs,'' the North's Korean Central Broadcasting Station said.
• Clinton: Mutual trust key in settling North Korea, Iraq, China issues
  The Asahi Shimbun Visiting former U.S. President Bill Clinton shared his views Feb. 26 on issues ranging from the Middle East peace process; the North Korean nuclear crisis; tension over the Taiwan Strait; and trilateral relations between Japan, China and the United States. Clinton talked with Asahi Shimbun foreign affairs columnist Yoichi Funabashi, and fielded questions from university students. The forum was sponsored by The Asahi Shimbun, which published the Japanese edition of Clinton's autobiography ``My Life.'' About 1,000 people attended the event at the Hotel Okura in Tokyo's Minato Ward. Following are excerpts from the forum: ON NORTH KOREA Showing a better lifestyle could spur regime change Funabashi: In your book, you mention that you had to decide whether to go to North Korea, and you didn't. If you had visited, do you think things would have worked out differently? Do you think it is possible to have diplomatic dealings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il? Clinton: I think the short answer is, I'm not sure, I don't know. I believe if I had gone to North Korea we could have gotten an agreement to end the production of long-range missiles. But let me remind you all of exactly what happened and what precipitated the current crisis. In 1994, North Korea had those spent fuel rods, highly valuable for producing fissile material for nuclear weapons. So we agreed in 1994 with the North Koreans that they would secure the spent fuel rods, they would not build the second nuclear reactor at 200 megawatts. They could have been building 10 or 12 nuclear weapons a year, if we hadn't done that in 1994. What we did not know is that in 1998, North Korea began a separate and secret small program using highly enriched uranium in a laboratory to try to to make a nuclear weapon. It was much, much smaller than the program we ended in 1994, but it still violated at least the spirit of our agreement. It could have given them enough fuel at most to make two weapons a year probably more like one, but it shattered the confidence of the Bush administration and a lot of other people. [HEU]
• Report: Drugs traded by North
  March 07, 2005 ? The U.S. Department of State has said in its latest report on international drug trafficking that North Korea's government is likely sponsoring narcotics trafficking to raise foreign currency. The annual report, presented to the U.S. Congress, stated that "the cumulative impact of drug smuggling incidents linked to North Korea over years in a context of other admitted DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) state- directed criminal activity, such as the Japanese kidnapping incidents, support the department's conclusion that it is likely, though not certain, that the DPRK is state trading narcotics." The report added that there is strong possibility that Pyeongyang is also involved in manufacturing methamphetamine and heroin as a result of the same "state-directed conspiracy." The U.S. Department of State said the information has not been conclusively verified by independent sources and is based mainly on defectors' statements. But it concluded that "defector statements however, are consistent over years and occur in the context of multiple narcotics seizures linked to North Korea." The report cited examples such as in Australia in 2003 when the North Korean cargo vessel Pong Su was seized by Australian authorities as the ship was allegedly delivering a large load of heroin. At the time of the seizure, a North Korean communist party secretary was also found aboard. A trial is still in process. by Brian Lee
• White House nominates ambassador for new post
  March 07, 2005 ? The White House announced on Friday that it has nominated Christopher R. Hill, current ambassador to South Korea and top negotiator to the six-party talks, for the job of assistant secretary of state for east Asian and Pacific affairs. Mr. Hill is expected to start as soon as he passes a Senate confirmation hearing scheduled for April. He has been U.S. ambassador to Seoul since August and was named on Feb. 14 as Washington's top negotiator to the six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Sources in Washington said that among the possible candidates to replace the ambassador to Korea is Evans Revere, acting assistant secretary for east Asian and Pacific affairs. Mr. Revere was deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul from 2000 to 2003.
• The people who brought Protestantism to Korea
  March 07, 2005 ? Protestant Christianity arrived in Korea a mere 120 years ago, yet more than a quarter of South Koreans now consider themselves Protestants. Of the Protestant missionaries who established a lasting legacy in Korea, none were more influential and prominent than the Underwood family.
• Foreign Ministry Spokesman Refutes U.S. Report on Human Rights
  Pyongyang, March 5 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK gave an answer to a question raised by KCNA Saturday in which it accused the United States of groundlessly pulling up the DPRK over the "human rights issue". He says: The U.S. State Department in an annual report on human rights on Feb. 28 again said this or that about human rights performances in more than 100 countries including the DPRK. The U.S. ballyhoo about human rights practices every year does not deserve even a passing note. This can be made only by the Bush group, a mastermind of swindling and deception. The DPRK does neither pay heed to it nor listen to it. It is nothing surprising for the Bush administration to utter such words as it has inveterate enmity toward the system in the DPRK. It is, therefore, not interested at all in dealing with Washington.
• MDP to Arrange Visit to NK for Hillary Clinton
  The opposition Millennium Democratic Party is trying to arrange a visit by Hillary Clinton to North Korea along with a group of U.S. senators. Party chairman Han Hwa-kap plans to meet with U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Christopher Hill today to discuss the issue, according to MDP officials Sunday. ``If possible, the visit will come sometime later this year,'' an MDP member said on condition of anonymity. Hill was designated as assistant U.S. secretary of state on North East Asia, a job that will task him with negotiations on the standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons program on behalf of the U.S. Han had been seeking to solidify his political clout by continuing the sunshine policy of engaging North Korea pursued under former President Kim Dae-jung.
• New U.S. bill targets North Korea
  March 05, 2005 ? A group of U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation yesterday to create a country-by-country strategy tailored to promote democratic changes in non-democratic regimes. Although the bill did not list the countries where the changes should take place, the lawmakers made clear that North Korea is one of the primary targets. Senator John McCain, a Republican of Arizona who sponsored the bill, said the U.S. Congress would publish reports on freedom in countries that do not have diplomatic ties with the United States, pinpointing North Korea as an example.
• Planned War Game Flailed
  Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists and bellicose forces of the south Korean military announced that they would stage the RSOI and Foal Eagle, large-scale joint military exercises, from March 19 to 25, according to the south Korean KBS. They declared that those exercises simulating a "contingency" on the Korean Peninsula would involve over 17,000 U.S. troops present in south Korea and overseas as well as the south Korean army. Special attention should be paid to their announcement that the war rehearsals would draw the carrier Kittyhawk and the task force brigade from the U.S. mainland. [Joint US military]
• U.S., North to meet over war remains
  March 04, 2005 ? The United States and North Korea are scheduled to hold a meeting today at the truce village of Panmunjeom to prepare for the resumption of efforts to recover more remains of U.S. soldiers who died in the Korean War. The U.S. operation is to began in April.
• S. Korea, US to Hold Military Drill
  South Korea and the United States will conduct a joint military training exercise on March 19-25, a move that North Korea routinely condemns as a rehearsal for a northward invasion, the U.S. military said yesterday. The week-long drill, dubbed Foal Eagle and RSOI (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration), comes amid stalled international talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. [Joint US military]
• U.S. Anti-Syria Moves under Fire
  Pyongyang, March 2 (KCNA) -- The United States is blatantly interfering in Syria's internal affairs and contemplating a military aggression against it after groundlessly branding it as a "terrorism sponsor." This is a crime in breach of the UN charter and international law. Newspapers today observe this in signed commentaries. Accusing the U.S. of kicking up a noisy anti-Syria campaign, baselessly linking it to the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Rodong Sinmun says:
• American NGO Meeting on N. Korean Human Rights Annoys Seoul
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter South Korea expressed its displeasure on Wednesday at Washington's decision to organize an international conference on North Korea's human rights situation, saying that it will only aggravate inter-Korean relations. The U.S. State Department reportedly decided to provide $1.7 million to Freedom House, a pro-democracy NGO in the U.S., this year to help it organize the conference at a yet-to-be-determined place. ``As Freedom House is not a governmental body, they will not ask for our help in organizing the conference,'' a Seoul government official told The Korea Times. ``But I think they may choose Seoul as the venue. The implication of it will not be good.'' [Friction] [Refugee encouragement]
• U.S. harshly condemns North for rights abuse
  March 02, 2005 ? In its latest annual report on human rights, the U.S. Department of State has called the leaders of North Korea "the world's most repressive and brutal regime." At the same time the U.S. government is expected to provide a U.S. human rights group with $1.7 million with the aim of holding a conference on North Korean human rights issues. North Korea's rights record remains extremely poor, and the country's leaders continue to commit abuses, the report, which was released Monday in Washington, said. Stating that North Korea is also one of the world's most militarized societies with an internal security apparatus in place to check on the general public, the report blamed many abuses on security forces. The report estimated that the number of North Korean political prisoners was between 150,000 and 200,000. [human rights]
• Over 190 Cases of U.S. Aerial Espionage Committed in February
  Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists committed more than 190 cases of aerial espionage against the DPRK in February, according to a military source. Strategic and tactical reconnaissance planes with various missions were involved in the espionage. Over 40 cases of espionage were perpetrated by U-2, RC- 135, E-3 and EP-3. A U-2 took off a U.S. air force base in south Korea at about 11:20 on Feb. 28 and flew for hours in the sky above Tokjok Islet, Phochon and Sokcho to spy on the strategic targets of the DPRK. The U.S. imperialists sent 10 tactical reconnaissance planes on Feb. 2, 9 on Feb. 24 and 8 on Feb.23 and 25 each to spy on forefront and coastal areas of the DPRK. The U.S. imperialist warhawks have thus perpetrated ceaseless aerial espionage to invade the north, talking a lot about a negotiated solution to the nuclear issue. This goes to prove that their ambition to stifle the DPRK by force of arms remains unchanged.
• State Dept. Study Cites Torture of Prisoners Rumsfeld Approved Similar Practices
  By Glenn Kessler
  Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, March 1, 2005; Page A10 The State Department's annual human rights report released yesterday criticized countries for a range of interrogation practices it labeled as torture, including sleep deprivation for detainees, confining prisoners in contorted positions, stripping and blindfolding them and threatening them with dogs -- methods similar to those approved at times by the Bush administration for use on detainees in U.S. custody.
  Iran and North Korea, both labeled part of an "axis of evil" by Bush, also used techniques similar to those employed in U.S. terrorism detentions. Iran favored prolonged solitary confinement with sensory deprivation, long confinement in contorted positions and sleep deprivation. The "methods of torture" used in North Korea included severe beatings, prolonged periods of exposure, public nakedness and being forced to stand up and sit down to the point of collapse, the report said. [human rights] [double standards]
• US to Allow Political Exile from N.Korea
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter In a recent report to the Congress, Washington showed its intention to allow only political exiles from North Korea to resettle in the United States, a North Korea expert in Seoul said Monday. The U.S. Department of State said in the report last week that Washington is considering measures to accept North Korean refugees who have a ``compelling reason'' for resettling in the U.S. The North Korean Human Rights Act, signed by U.S. President George W. Bush late last year, required the State Department to present a report to the Congress on the refugee issue within 120 days of it being enacted. ``I think the report presented a broad standard of selectively admitting North Korean refugee- seekers to the U.S., especially those who are under threat of political persecution in the North,'' Kim Soo-am, research fellow of the Korea Institute for National Unification, told The Korea Times. The current number of North Korean refugees hiding in China is estimated at between 30,000 and 50,000 with most of them crossing the border for economic reasons. Civic group leaders in Seoul said a very limited number of North Koreans have decided to defect from the communist country for political reasons. [refugee encouragement][Refugee reception]
• U.S. asylum for defectors being discussed
  February 28, 2005 ? WASHINGTON ? Seoul and Washington are having detailed discussions about granting North Korean defectors political asylum in the United States, a U.S. State Department official said Saturday. The official, who asked for anonymity, told the JoongAng Ilbo that the two governments have discussed a measure under which the United States would accept about 10 percent of the 1,800 North Koreans who came to South Korea last year. The U.S. North Korean Human Rights Act, which President George W. Bush signed into law last October, allows North Korean defectors in China and other countries to apply for U.S. political asylum. [refugee encouragement] [refugee reception]
• 'Tough Times Ahead Require U.S. Trust'
  Former newspaper publisher Hong Seok Hyun gives his first interview as ambassador to the U.S.
  Reporters: Jung Un Hyun, Sin Mi Hee South Korea's new ambassador to the United States, Hong Seok Hyun, is the former president of the JoongAng Daily and the president of the World Association of Newspapers. He spoke with OhmyNews on Feb. 19 in his first media interview since taking public office. Hong told OhmyNews about his strong relationship with the United States and the positive role this can play as he represents South Korea in Washington. He also outlined the outlook for North Korea's coming back to the table at the six-party talks. The 57-year-old Stanford Ph.D. and former economist at the World Bank said he has no political aspirations following his tenure as U.S. ambassador, and dismissed claims he got the appointment based on his connection to Samsung Group (his elder sister is the wife of Samsung Chairman Lee Kun Hee). The following is a translation of the Feb. 19 interview.

• Spurning the U.S. alliance foolish
  The United States and Japan have been building a bilateral alliance for the 21st century. If the U.S.-Japan alliance during the Cold War focused on the defense of Japan, it has attempted to form a regional one after the Cold War.
  Taking a lesson from the example of Japan, South Korea should find a shortcut to maintaining a mature and balanced relationship with the United States. Raising our voice unconditionally and arguing for the difference in opinions will not strengthen South Korea's stance. South Korea, still divided with North Korea, has no reason to distance China either. South Korea had better deepen social, economic and diplomatic cooperation with China while remaining with the United States for military cooperation. It will be beneficial to national interests to strengthen the U.S.-South Korea alliance until a framework of stable peace is formed by multilateral security in Northeast Asia. * The writer is a professor of political science at the Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University. Translation by the JoongAng Daily staff. by Park Cheol-hee
• Roh Emphasizes Alliance With US
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter President Roh Moo-hyun Friday vowed his government would continue to put priority on cementing its alliance with the United States. ``The alliance between South Korea and the United States is more solid than ever and the government will manage it properly in the future,'' Roh said. ``The alliance will become stable in more balanced way in 10 years.'' Roh made the remarks during a speech at the National Assembly marking the second anniversary of his inauguration. But he reiterated that the government will pursue diplomacy on an equal footing with the U.S., saying he has been asking officials in charge of foreign policy to be more straightforward in negotiations with Washington [Friction]
• 'Ultimate U.S. goal is N.K. regime change'
  A complete regime change in communist North Korea is a long-term goal for the United States, the head of a top American think tank. Edwin J. Feulner, president of the U.S.-based Heritage Foundation, said in a discussion with Herald Media publisher Hong Jung-wook that Washington will eventually work toward that goal and stressed it would be the only way for true development in the Stalinist state.
• Bank of Korea clarifies foreign reserve remark
  February 24, 2005 ? After a media report that Korea would diversify its foreign currency holdings triggered a worldwide sell-off of U.S. dollars, financial officials in Seoul and Tokyo scrambled to calm the turbulent currency markets. On Tuesday, Reuters newswire reported that the Bank of Korea, in a document submitted to the National Assembly, had expressed its intention to diversify its $200 billion foreign reserves from its current investments, which are heavily weighted in the American currency. The dollar tumbled against the local currency by 17.2 won, or 1.7 percent, on the day and continued to weaken yesterday morning to break the 1,000-won level at one point. In New York Tuesday, the dollar slid 1.4 percent against the Japanese yen, recording the largest daily drop in four and a half months. The dollar also dropped 1.5 percent ? the largest drop in six and a half months ? against the euro. [Friction]
• Ban says North can't set conditions
  February 24, 2005 ? Following U.S. appeals for solidarity in dealing with North Korea, Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon made a pointed declaration yesterday that Pyeongyang needed to return to nuclear disarmament talks unconditionally. "I have said it several times," Mr. Ban said at a press conference in Seoul. "For the participants in the talks, there can be no preconditions to resume negotiations as the talks were already in process." Mr. Ban's statement comes after the U.S. urged that a coordinated approach be taken on the North Korean nuclear crisis. [Friction]
• Three Little Words Matter to N. Korea
  Bush Has Avoided 'No Hostile Intent' By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, February 22, 2005; Page A10
  What's in a phrase? Everything, in the craft of diplomacy. This is the story of three little words -- "no hostile intent" -- and the fierce tussle within the Bush administration over them as officials tried to develop a policy to confront North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
  To a non-diplomat, the phrase might seem typical of the awkward and diffuse verbiage frequently uttered by men in pinstriped suits. But to the North Korean government, hearing those words from the United States looms large as the diplomatic equivalent of the Holy Grail.
  Yet President Bush has never uttered them. Neither has Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Former secretary of state Colin L. Powell did, especially in the final months of his tenure -- and he frequently suggested Bush had said them, too. But we're getting ahead of the story. Government officials around the world pay close attention to the words spoken by U.S. officials, especially the president. But few countries devote as much time or effort as North Korea. For half a century, the reclusive government in Pyongyang has viewed the United States as its primary enemy -- the only country with the military might to possibly crush it.
• GNP Leader to Visit Washington on NK Nuke Issue
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter Park Geun-hye, chairwoman of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), will visit Washington next month to discuss the North Korean nuclear issue with top U.S. officials and lawmakers, the party said Sunday. ``Park plans to visit the U.S. for a week in mid- March to have meetings with officials from the Congress, the White House and the administration,'' a GNP official said. The official went on to say that the North Korean nuclear weapons problem will probably be top of the agenda in the talks as the North recently announced its possession of nuclear arms and said it would not take part in the six- party talks aimed to resolving the nuclear standoff. Political observers said that Park will seek to act as a messenger between Washington and Pyongyang as she met North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2002. Although the GNP denied the possibility of a second visit by Park to Pyongyang following her visit to the U.S., she has been considered a possible special envoy for Seoul to Pyongyang for the security issue.
• Hill says 'coordinated actions' needed, but U.S. won't dictate
  February 19, 2005 ? The U.S. ambassador to Seoul said Friday that while "coordinated actions" were needed among the nations dealing with Pyeongyang over its nuclear program, Washington wouldn't try to dictate how South Korea handles issues such as humanitarian aid to the North. "We don't have to have identical actions, but we do have to have coordinated actions," Christopher Hill told reporters Friday at the Seoul Press Club in downtown Seoul. [Friction]
• US Wants Coordinated NK Aid
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Washington's top nuclear negotiator on Friday stressed the need for ``coordinated approaches'' between South Korea and the United States to deal with the North Korean nuclear issue, indicating that the allies are not in full sync over inter-Korean economic projects. [Friction] [aid weapon]
• US Congressmen Urge NK to Return to Nuke Talks
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) - A bipartisan group of six members of the U.S. Congress who visited North Korea last month urged the communist state to withdraw its decision to boycott the six-way talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons program. In a letter sent to the North's No. 2 leader Kim Yong-nam, they said, ``We strongly encourage you to reconsider the DPRK's position on the six-party talks.'' DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name. The congressmen expressed deep disappointment over Pyongyang's declaration last Thursday that it has nuclear weapons and will not attend the six-way talks. ``Our initial assessment of our trip (to Pyongyang) was positive, and that message was conveyed to the White House,'' read the letter sent to Pyongyang on Feb. 10
• Ban: No 'large-scale' cooperation
  February 17, 2005 ? Back from Washington and his meetings with top U.S. officials over the North Korean nuclear standoff, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said he had assured them that Seoul does not plan to engage in "large- scale economic cooperation" with the North until the crisis is resolved. Speaking to reporters in Seoul yesterday, Mr. Ban said, "I told them that we do not have any plans for large-scale economic cooperation with the North Korean nuclear problem not being solved, but that we are promoting economic cooperation on a humanitarian basis." Mr. Ban met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney, among other officials. The implications of Mr. Ban's statement for the inter-Korean Gaeseong Industrial Complex project were unclear. [Friction] [Sanctions]
• S. Korea Rules Out Sanctions on NK Roh Urges NK to Return to Dialogue
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korean officials said Wednesday that it is time to focus on diplomatic efforts to persuade North Korea to rejoin the regional talks on its nuclear arms programs and that it's too early to think about hardline options to pressure the communist country. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki- moon, who returned home after a brief trip to Washington, stressed South Korea and the United States agreed to make diplomatic efforts to resume the six-party disarmament talks. [Friction] [Sanctions]
• Seoul Seeks Balanced Approach Between Nuclear Issue, Inter-Korean Relations
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki- moon, second from left, and Hong Seok-hyun, third from left, new ambassador to the United States, salute the flag at a meeting of diplomatic mission chiefs abroad, in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap South Korea's diplomacy will be focused on resolving the North Korean nuclear issue and improving inter-Korean relations this year, Seoul's top diplomat said Wednesday. In an annual meeting of chiefs of overseas diplomatic missions and ranking ministry officials, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon stressed the need for a balanced approach between inter-Korean relations and the nuclear issue.
• CFC Proposes ROK-US Joint Military Drill
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter The ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) recently proposed to the South Korean military a joint special forces training drill with troops from the United States, the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said Wednesday. The CFC made the proposal to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Army, asking if the military drill could be held next month and open to the news media, said Kim Young-kyu, spokesman of the USFK. The military drill will be focused on ``close air support'' in which aircraft are mobilized to support nearby ground combat operations by launching air strikes against the ground enemy. [US military dominance]
• Hedgehog Can Outmuscle Tiger: Radio Pyongyang
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Who would win in a fight between a tiger and a hedgehog? It would not be easy to spot such a fight in nature, making it difficult to predict the winner. But North Korea thinks that the winner is always the hedgehog. In a report on Tuesday, a day before the 63rd birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the North's media said Pyongyang will definitely win the current nuclear standoff against the United States, comparing it to a tiger-hedgehog fight. Kim was quoted by Radio Pyongyang in a recent dialogue with one of his confidants as saying, ``We don't need to react to America's bad behaviors case by case. Just wait and see. But we need to fight against the U.S. if it continues attacking us.'' The radio broadcast, monitored by Yonhap News Agency in Seoul, alleged that these remarks clearly showed Kim's courage, saying that the hedgehog, if armed with courage, can defeat the tiger despite its small frame. [NK US strategy]
• Pyeongyang a target of anti-dictatorship bill
  February 16, 2005 ? WASHINGTON ? North Korea is one of the unnamed targets of a bill to be presented to the U.S. House of Representatives next month, titled "End Dictatorship and Assist Democracy." Though the bill does not target North Korea or any other nation by name, it would restrict the export of high-tech products with potential military applications to countries deemed dictatorships. It would also aid pro-democracy activist groups in such countries. Aides to Congressman Tom Lantos, a Democrat who visited Pyeongyang last month, said yesterday that he and Republican Frank Wolf will present the bill to the House at the end of March. House sources said a similar bill will be presented to the U.S. Senate at the same time, and said both bills have bipartisan support and are highly likely to be approved
• Hong Proposes 'Cube Sugar' Approach to N. Korea
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Hong Seok-hyun, South Korea's new ambassador to the United States, extended a warm hand to the North Korean brethren on Tuesday, suggesting a new ``cube sugar'' approach _ instead of the traditional ``stick and carrot'' _ would be used to coax the North into giving up its nuclear ambitions. Amb. Hong, who is set to embark on his mission in Washington next Tuesday, said that although the North's announcement last week was quite frustrating, all parties share the common goal of making the Korean peninsula nuclear-free. ``To reach that grand goal, I believe the parties involved will be able to give and take, making some concessions,'' he told a press conference held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade right after his formal appointment. ``I admit there should be stick and carrot in real diplomacy,'' he said in response to a question about Pyongyang's announcement last Thursday that it owns nuclear weapons and will delay the six-party talks aimed at ending its standoff with the U.S., indefinitely. ``One interesting story I've heard: the best jockey trains his or her horse only with cube sugar, which the horse is said to prefer to carrots, while the worst jockeys use only the stick,'' he added. [Friction]
• U.S. Urges Nations Not to Reward N. Korea
  By Glenn KesslerWashington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, February 15, 2005; Page A14 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with her South Korean counterpart yesterday as the Bush administration urged North Korea's neighbors not to provide incentives to the government in Pyongyang to return to six- nation talks on its nuclear programs. North Korea last week pulled out of the talks and officially announced it possessed nuclear weapons, leaving the United States scrambling for ways to step up pressure to get the negotiating process on track. [Friction] [Sanctions]
• JoongAng Ilbo Publisher Hong Seok-hyun's farewell message
  Sincere dialogue key to solving our problems February 16, 2005 ? Now I am about to make the first step in a very important change. When I was asked last year to help the country by becoming its ambassador to the United States, it was then when I realized what our ancestors valued above all ? the ability to judge when to step forward and when to take a step back. Over the past 11 years, the JoongAng Ilbo undergone several significant changes, shedding colonial-era vestiges such as vertical headline and article layouts.
• Rice Assures South Korean of U.S. Pressure on North
  By JOEL BRINKLEY and JAMES BROOKE Published: February 15, 2005 WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a meeting with the South Korean foreign minister on Monday, pledged to continue using diplomatic means to pressure North Korea to end its nuclear program and give up the nuclear weapons it claimed last week that it possesses.
• Seoul-Washington Ties Hinge on S-N Reconciliation
  Kenneth Quinones
  This is the first in a series of New Year's contributions by noted Korean and foreign scholars concerning the prospects on different issues, including inter-Korean relations, North Korea's nuclear programs, the situation on the Korean peninsula and the South Korea-U.S. alliance. - ED. By Dr. C. Kenneth Quinones Director of Korean Peninsula Program International Action, Washington
  The U.S.-ROK alliance's fate hinges on the United States' willingness to adjust to South Korea's prosperous democracy and pursuit of reconciliation with North Korea. Changing circumstances have buffeted the alliance since its birth, but the shared goal of peace and stability on the Korean peninsula has sustained it. Success has been a consequence of each side's willingness to accommodate the other side's preferences. But since 1993, strategies to achieve their shared goal have diverged. Ultimately, the United States should adjust to South Korea's preference for reconciliation with North Korea.
• Even One Phyong of Land Cannot Be Offered to U.S.: Minju Joson
  Pyongyang, February 13 (KCNA) -- The U.S. recently forced the south Korean authorities to offer the Ryongsan base in Seoul as a new building site of the U.S. embassy, which is a shameless action violating the sovereignty and dignity of the south Korean people and another plunder of the inviolable land of Korea. Minju Joson says this Sunday in a signed commentary.
• U.S. Is Shaping Plan to Pressure North Koreans
  By DAVID E. SANGER Published: February 14, 2005 WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 - In the months before North Korea announced that it possessed nuclear weapons, the Bush administration began developing new strategies to choke off its few remaining sources of income, based on techniques in use against Al Qaeda, intelligence officials and policy makers involved in the planning say.
  The initial steps are contained in a classified "tool kit" of techniques to pressure North Korea that has been refined in recent weeks by the National Security Council. The new strategies would intensify and coordinate efforts to track and freeze financial transactions that officials say enable the government of Kim Jong Il to profit from counterfeiting, drug trafficking and the sale of missile and other weapons technology. Some officials describe the steps as building blocks for what could turn into a broader quarantine if American allies in Asia - particularly China and South Korea - can be convinced that Mr. Kim's declaration on nuclear weapons last week means he must finally be forced to choose between disarmament and even deeper isolation. China and South Korea have been reluctant to impose penalties on the North. To some degree the effort arises from Washington's lack of leverage over North Korea, and the absence of good military options, and it is far from clear that the administration's development of what one official calls "new instruments of pressure" will work. More than four decades of economic embargos of Cuba, tried by nine presidents, have failed, largely because European, Canadian and Latin American allies have not joined in. Nor have they succeeded against the Burmese, also a major source of drugs. The Secret Service has tried for years to halt North Korean counterfeiting dollars, and Australia and Japan have tried to end its sales of amphetamines and heroin. [Drugs] [Sanctions]
• Remarks With South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon Before Their Meeting
  Secretary Condoleezza Rice The Secretary of State's Outer Office Washington, DC February 14, 2005
• Aid to continue; hard-liners urge tougher stance
  February 14, 2005 ? With Foreign Minister Ban Ki- moon about to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over North Korea's nuclear brinkmanship, South Korean officials said yesterday that keeping "hard-liners" in Seoul and Washington from prevailing in the debate over a response to Pyeongyang was a prime concern. Additionally, Mr. Ban said South Korea's humanitarian aid and economic cooperation with the North would continue. [Friction]
• NSC Investigates Leakage of Classified Documents
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter The National Security Council (NSC) is investigating a leakage of secret documents containing sensitive foreign policies after a weekly newspaper disclosed the classified contents, officials said Sunday. The newspaper Ilyo Shinmun said in its latest issue that it obtained classified NSC documents, which said Seoul and Beijing had asked U.S. President George W. Bush to refrain from provoking Pyongyang in his State of the Union address on Feb. 2. All available diplomatic channels were used to convey Seoul and Beijing's voice to Bush, and the two countries' efforts successfully led to a brief mention of North Korea, according to the report. Bush only mildly referred to the communist country in the address, saying that he is working with governments in Asia to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions. Compared with Bush's strong labeling of Pyongyang as an ``axis of evil" in 2002, this year's address spawned various speculations on why he toned down his rhetoric on North Korea. [Friction] [PYR]
• USFK crime rate fell substantially in 2004
  February 12, 2005 ? The number of crimes committed by U.S. soldiers in Korea dropped significantly last year, according to the National Police Agency. The number of "general offenses," such as thefts and robberies, committed by U.S. Forces Korea personnel fell from 83 in 2003 to 59 in 2004, the agency said. The number of "special crimes," including sexual violence, decreased from 98 to 57. Observers attributed the dropoff to reinforced and more frequent patrols by U.S. military police. For several years, military police and local police have jointly patroled the Itaewon area where off-duty soldiers frequently socialize. In addition, soliders have been subject to a midnight curfew, and many bars involved in prostitution have been placed off-limits to U.S. military personnel.
• Letter to Senator John F. Kerry from [Korean-American] Korea Peace Network
  Dear Senator Kerry:
  Among Americans who watched the Senate confirmation hearing of Dr. Condoleezza Rice for Secretary of State, were many key leaders of the Korean American community, who now number over one-million, productive, patriotic citizens.
  The hearing held on January 18, 2005 was of particular interest to us since it provided the first possible opportunity for a glimpse into the direction of the new administration's Korean peninsula foreign policy.
  Over the past four years, we have been deeply concerned by the needlessly harsh thrust of the US policy toward the North Korea that, we believe, eventually led to the latter emerging as a fledgling nuclear power, and we have been hoping fervently that there be some significant changes in the policy towards the direction making it more conducive to the peace and stability in the Korean peninsula.
  We silently cheered when you raised questions about the new Bush administration's North Korea policy, and hoped that Dr. Rice would indicate a new culturally sensitive State Department approach. However, contrary to her rather hopeful opening comments, her answer contained not a single clue to expect any hopeful changes in the direction of the new administration. It was more of the same; multilateral talks and pressure on North Korea to disarm its nuclear weapons system. Furthermore, in her presentation, she referred the government of North Korea as "an outpost of tyranny," her people as "bark-eating people" and "treaty-cheaters"; who had signed a 1994 treaty (referring to the Agreed Framework between the US and the DPRK, signed in 1994, at Geneva) and started cheating within two years.
  Aside from her expressions lacking diplomatic finesse and cultural sensitivities, Dr. Rice's statement regarding the North Korea's non-compliance of the '94 Agreement was factually inaccurate.
• KCNA Refutes U.S. Accusations of Human Rights Situation in DPRK
  Pyongyang criticized the U.S. human rights NGO's "malignant mud-slinging at the DPRK over its human rights performance," saying that it is "sheer sophism fully representing the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK." "The Human Rights Watch," a U.S.-based human rights watchdog, released on January 13 its annual report on human rights performances in at least 60 countries. The annual report attacked the DPRK over the issue of "political offenders" and "defectors from North Korea." This is nothing surprising to us as it used to let loose a string of trite vituperations against the DPRK as a tool serving the successive U.S. administrations for the implementation of their "human rights policies." The U.S. has no right to talk about human rights as it is the graveyard of human rights and the worst human rights abuser in the world though it styles itself as a "human rights judge," said the official KCNA report on January 20.
• Two U.S. Congress Delegations Visit DPRK in Succession
  Talks Held with DPRK Officials on Six-Way Talks and Other Problems
  Paek Nam Sun (center of right side) talks with Tom Lantos and his party in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  Two congress delegations of the U.S. recently visited the DPRK in succession. One of them is Tom Lantos, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and his party. They stayed in Pyongyang from January 8 to 11. They met and had a conversation with Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, together with Kim Kye Gwan, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, on Jan 10. Paek Nam Sun, DPRK Foreign Minister, also met the party on the same day. Tom Lantos had indicated before his visit to the DPRK that his purpose was to resume the deadlocked six-way talks and to find a way to solve the nuclear problem of the DPRK.
  Tom Lantos said after the visit to the DPRK, "We had a substantial and serious conference on the problems of nuclear, human rights, economic and other issues in Pyongyang," at a press conference which was held in Beijing on Jan 11. Meanwhile, a delegation of U.S. Congressmen led by Vice-Chairman of the Armed Services Committee of its House of Representatives Curt Weldon visited the DPRK from Jan. 11 to 14.
• US to Dispatch 690,000 Troops to Korea in Crisis
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter About 690,000 U.S. troops along with 2,000 military aircraft and 160 warships would be mobilized to defend South Korea in the event of a war on the Korean peninsula, according to a document released by the Ministry of National Defense on Friday. The Defense White Paper said the U.S.' contingency plan included the deployment of 70 percent of its Marine Corps. The remaining forces consisted of 50 percent of the U.S. Air Force and 40 percent of the U.S. Navy. The planned increase in forces is mainly designed to provide strikes against North Korean field artillery located near the inter-Korean border in the early stage of any war and ensure sea and air superiority with several aircraft carriers, the paper said. [military balance]

Nothing posted

• DPRK-US relations 2004
• DPRK-US relations 2003
• DPRK-US relations 2002
• DPRK-US relations 2001
• DPRK-US relations 2000
• Return to DPRK indexpage